UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


•=^^f^ 

Ksrrg^ 

L1BRJS 


The  Music  Lover's  Library 


BY  W.  J.  HENDERSON 


THE  ART  OF  THE  SINGER 

Practical  Hints  About  Vocal  Technics  and  Style. 

THE  ORCHESTRA  AND  ORCHESTRAL  MUSIC 
(The  Music  Lover's  Library.) 

WHAT  IS  GOOD  MUSIC? 

Suggestions  to  Persons  Desiring  to  Cultivate 
a  Taste  in  Musical  Art. 


CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


BEETHOVEN. 


The  Music  Lover's  Library 


The  Orchestra 

And 

Orchestral   Music 


W.  J.  Henderson 

AvOtor  of'Wtat  Is  Good  Music?"  lit. 


With  Portrait* 


Charles   Scribner's   Sons 
New  York  ::  ::  ::     1920 


Cofy>rigbt,  1899,  &v 
•Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


. 
UBBARY  \ 

H    3#  cr 


To  the 
philharmonic  Society  of  J^ew 

vrfiich  has  maintained  through  fifty-seven  years  its 

existence  as  an  orchestra  devoted  to  the 

performance  of  artistic  music 


Preface 

Cfhis  is  not  a  text-book.  It  is  not  a  treatise  on 
instrumentation.  It  is  not  written  for  musi- 
cians, nor  primarily  for  students  of  music,  though 
the  latter  may  find  in  it  information  of  some  value 
to  them.  This  is  simply  an  attempt  to  give  to 
music  lovers  such  facts  about  the  modern  orchestra 
as  will  help  them  in  assuming  an  intelligent  atti- 
tude toward  the  contemporaneous  instrumental  body 
and  its  performances.  The  author  has  endeavored 
to  put  before  the  reader  a  description  of  each  instru- 
ment with  an  illustration  which  will  enable  him  to 
identify  its  tone  when  next  heard  in  the  delivery  of 
the  passage  quoted.  Some  account  of  the  distinctive 
nature  and  functions  of  the  strings,  the  wood,  the 
brass,  and  the  percussion  instruments  has  been  given. 
With  this  account  go  hand  in  hand  some  remarks 
on  the  development  of  methods  of  scoring.  The 
reader  will  not  find  such  historical  matter  in  any 
other  book  with  which  the  present  writer  is  acquainted. 
Neither  will  he  find  anywhere  else  a  history  of  the 


Preface 

development  of  the  conductor,  which  is  given  in  this 
volume.  The  author  has  endeavored  to  make  his 
"work  complete  by  describing  the  duties  of  the  con- 
ductor and  the  requisites  of  good  orchestral  'aying, 
and  by  recounting  briefly  the  story  of  the  growth 
of  the  orchestra  and  the  development  of  its  music. 
All  other  books  on  the  orchestra  which  the  author  has 
seen  are  for  the  professional  musician.  In  making 
one  for  the  amateur  of  music  the  writer  hopes  to 
supply  a  need. 


vfli 


Contents 
Part  ! 

How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

I.   Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 3 

II.   Wind-Instruments  of  Wood   .........  19 

III.  Wind-instruments  of  Brass 30 

IV.  Other  Instruments 37 

V.  The  Orchestral  Score 43 

Part  II 

How  tie  Orchestra  is  Ustd 

VI.  General  Principles ......  6t 

VII.  The  Strings 66 

VIII.  The  Wood-Wind 8l 

IX.  The  Brass  and  the  "  Battery  " 97 

X.   Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 113 

XI.   Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 124 


Contents 
Part  111 

How  tbe  Orchestra  is  Directed 

Page 

XIL   Development  of  the  Conductor  ........  147 

XIII.  Functions  of  the  Conductor 164 

Part  IV 

How  tbe  Orchestra  Crew 

XIV.  From  Peri  to  Handel 181 

XV.   From  Haydn  to  Wagner 198 

Part  V 

Hoio  Orchestral  Music  Crew 

XVL   From  Bach  to  Haydn 217 

XVII.   From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss    .    -,    ,    ...  226 

Index 235 


Portraits 

Beethoven          .          •         •          •          •         •  Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Arthur  Nikisch  .  ....    48 

Haydn      ...•••••    86 

Wagner **4 

Charles  Lamoureux  ; 128 

Theodore  Thomas    .       •       •       •       •       -142 

Hans  Richter    .......  162 

Berlioz 2o8 


PART  I 

How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

THE  modern  orchestra  is  a  musical  instru- 
ment upon  which  a  performer,  known  as 
a  conductor,  plays  compositions  written  espe- 
cially for  it.  It  is  true  that  an  orchestra  is  a 
collection  of  instruments,  but  these  are  in- 
tended to  be  so  distributed  and  operated  that 
the  result  shall  be  homogeneous,  the  effect  that 
of  one  grand  organ  of  sound.  Within  itself  the 
orchestra  embraces  a  wide  variety  of  tone- 
qualities  and  many  grades  of  power  and  brill- 
.iancy,  and  these  are  due  to  the  presence  of 
several  different  families  of  instruments,  each 
having  general  qualities,  with  special  traits  in 
the  individuals.  It  is  by  causing  these  differ- 
ent families  to  work  together  or  separately  that 
the  composer  achieves  the  expression  of  his 
thought,  and  it  is  by  governing  wisely  the  oper- 
ations of  the  individual  members  and  the  fami- 
lies that  the  conductor  conveys  the  composer's 
design  to  the  hearer. 

The  orchestra  of  to-day  is  the  result  of  a  se- 
3 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

ries  of  interesting  developments,  of  which  some 
considerable  account  will  be  given  in  this  vol- 
ume. But  it  is  necessary  before  that  develop- 
ment can  be  traced  that  the  reader  shall  take  a 
bird's-eye  view  of  the  orchestra  as  it  now  is. 
Subsequently  we  shall  examine  its  constitution 
in  detail,  but  at  present  we  shall  simply  glance 
at  its  general  features.  Orchestras  are  not  the 
same  for  all  compositions.  Composers  select 
their  instruments  in  these  days  according  to 
the  purpose  of  the  work  in  hand.  But  the 
orchestra  employed  by  Beethoven  and  his  im- 
mediate successors  in  their  symphonies  is  the 
typical  orchestra  for  independent  performance. 
Curtailed  or  extended  as  it  may  be  for  special 
effects,  its  general  plan  remains  undisturbed. 

The  modern  orchestra,  then,  is  composed  of 
the  following  instruments:  Flutes,  oboes,  clari- 
nets, bassoons,  horns,  trumpets,  trombones, 
drums,  and  other  instruments  of  percussion, 
violins,  violas,  violoncellos,  and  double-basses. 
These  instruments  naturally  divide  themselves 
into  families.  Flutes,  oboes,  clarinets,  and  bas- 
soons are  instruments  of  wood,  and  are  caused 
to  sound  by  the  blowing  of  the  breath  of  the 
players.  They  therefore  form  a  single  group 
or  family,  known  as  the  "  wood- wind,"  or,  more 
briefly,  the  wood.  Horns,  trumpets,  and  trom- 
bones are  instruments  of  brass,  and  they  form 

4 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

a  family  known  as  the  brass.  The  percussion 
instruments  (drums,  triangles,  cymbals,  etc.) 
are  sometimes  called  "the  battery."  Violins, 
violas,  violoncellos  (usually  called  'cellos),  and 
double-basses  are  all  stringed  instruments 
played  with  a  bow,  and  they  form  a  group 
known  as  "  the  strings." 

At  present  the  reader  will  not  be  invited  to 
study  the  characteristics  and  possibilities  of 
these  groups  and  their  combinations,  but  will 
be  asked  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  individual 
instruments  composing  them.  The  foundation  —f 
of  an  orchestra  is  its  body  of  strings.  Two 
principal  reasons  may  here  be  given  for  this : 
The  strings  are  capable,  when  playing  alone,  of 
a  greater  variety  of  expression  than  either  the 
wood  or  the  brass,  and  they  never  grow  tired. 
Blowers  of  wind-instruments  require  frequent 
periods  of  rest,  but  the  strings  are  equal  to  the 
demands  of  an  operatic  act  an  hour  and  a  half  ^.^ 
in  length.  Because  the  strings  are  the  founda- 
tion of  the  orchestra  we  must  study  them  first. 
The  string  group  is  often  described  as  the 
"quartet."  This  was  correct  in  early  times  when 
composers  wrote  the  same  part  for  the  'cellos 
and  double-basses,  but  it  is  not  correct  now,  be- 
cause  the  strings  almost  invariably  play  in  five 
real  parts.  The  violins  are  divided  into  two 
bodies,  known  as  first  and  second  violins. 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

First  violins  are  the  sopranos  of  the  strings, 
second  violins  the  altos,  violas  the  tenors,  'eel. 
los  the  barytones,  and  double-basses  the  basses. 
This  is  not  strictly  true,  because  the  compass  of 
the  viola  and  of  the  'cello  enables  those  instru- 
ments to  sing  above  the  violins  at  times.  But 
the  normal  distribution  of  the  parts  of  the 
strings  is  that  which  has  been  given,  and  this 
distribution  is  disturbed  only  when  special  ef- 
fects are  required,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter. 

THE  VIOLIN 

Let  us  begin  our  survey  of  the  individual  in- 
struments with  a  look  at  the  violin,  the  prima 
donna  of  the  orchestra.  The  violin  is  both  a 
dramatic  and  a  colorature  soprano.  It  can  sob 
with  the  woes  of  an  Isolde  as  eloquently  as  Lilli 
Lehmann,  or  it  can  twitter  with  the  trills  and 
roulades  of  a  Lucia  as  brightly  as  a  Melba.  Its 
resources  in  the  way  of  technical  agility  are 
great,  and  its  powers  of  emotional  expression 
are  still  greater.  It  is  not  necessary  to  expa- 
tiate upon  the  abilities  of  the  violin,  because  it 
is  so  familiar  an  instrument ;  but  it  is  well  to 
note  that  the  effect  of  a  solo  violin  is  very  dif. 
ferent  from  that  of  a  number  of  violins  playing 
together  in  an  orchestra.  A  body  of  violins 
is  capable  of  producing  a  vigorous,  masculine, 

6 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

sonorous  volume  of  tone  whose  character  is  as 
different  from  that  of  a  solo  instrument  as  its 
amount  is. 

The  violin  has  four  strings,  the  lowest  being 
tuned  to  the  G  below  the  treble  clef.  The 
other  three  are  tuned  to  D,  A,  and  E,  the  E 
being  that  in  the  uppermost  space  of  the  treble 
clef.  The  E  is  called  the  first  string,  and  the 
G  the  fourth.  The  compass  of  the  instrument 
as  employed  in  the  orchestra  is  from  the  low 
G,  three  and  a  half  octaves  upward,  to  the  C 
in  the  sixth  space  above  the  staff.  This  com- 
pass is  sometimes  increased  by  the  employ- 
ment of  what  are  called  harmonics.  These 
are  strangely  sweet  flute-like  sounds,  which 
the  Germans  call  the  flageolet  tones  of  the 
violin.  They  are  nothing  more  or  less  than 
what  the  scientists  describe  as  overtones,  or, 
better,  upper  partials.  It  is  a  fact  of  acoustics 
that  every  musical  tone  is  composed  of  several 
tones,  the  ear  hearing  plainly  only  that  which 
is  the  fundamental  sound  of  the  series.  In 
the  case  of  a  vibrating  string  the  lesser  tones 
can  be  utilized.  Professor  Zahm,  in  his  "Sound 
and  Music,"  says :  "  A  string  emitting  a  musi- 
cal note  rarely,  if  ever,  vibrates  as  a  whole, 
without,  at  the  same  time,  vibrating  in  seg- 
ments, which  are  aliquot  parts  of  the  whole." 
Violinists  have  discovered  that  by  touching  the 

7 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

vibrating  string  at  certain  points  very  lightly 
with  the  fingers  of  the  left  hand,  they  can  stop 
the  vibrations  of  the  fundamental  tone,  leaving 
the  upper  partial  to  be  heard.  These  harmon- 
ics are  very  high  in  pitch  and  sweet  in  quality, 
and  cannot  be  used  in  loud  or  vigorous  music, 
but  in  certain  kinds  of  passages  they  enable  the 
violin  to  soar  away  into  realms  of  ethereal 
beauty  of  tone. 

The  normal  tone  of  a  body  of  violins  playing 
together  is  clear,  penetrating,  and  rich.  As 
Berlioz  has  noted  in  his  book  on  orchestration, 
a  mass  of  violins  playing  in  the  middle  and  up- 
per registers  produces  the  most  brilliant  color 
of  the  modern  orchestra.  The  opening  meas- 
ures of  Mendelssohn's  Italian  symphony,  the 
finale  of  Weber's  "  Oberon  "  overture,  the  clos- 
ing measures  of  the  garden  scene  in  Gounod's 
"  Faust,"  or  the  whole  of  the  prelude  to  Wag- 
ner's "  Lohengrin,"  may  be  instanced  as  illus- 
trations of  pure  violin  color  and  power. 

The  prelude  to  "  Lohengrin  "  also  makes  use 
of  harmonics.  They  are  heard  in  the  peculiar, 
mystic,  high  tones  at  the  close  of  the  number. 
It  should  be  noted  here  that  harmonics,  or  upper 
partials,  need  not  be  used  simply  to  increase 
the  compass  of  the  violin.  On  the  contrary, 
they  can  be  produced  from  any  of  the  four 
strings.  Those  of  the  G  string,  for  instance, 


Instruments  flayed  with  the  Bow 


have  a  singularly  mellow,  flute-like  quality. 
Thus,  harmonics  can  be  employed  in  tone-col- 
oring, in  which  the  resources  of  the  modern 
orchestra  are  almost  inexhaustible. 

A  great  many  special  effects  can  be  produced 
from  violins.  The  manner  of  drawing  the  bow 
across  the  strings  has  much  to  do  with  them. 
For  instance,  bowing  close  to  the  bridge  of  the 
instrument  produces  a  rough,  metallic  sound, 
while  bowing  over  the  finger-board  evokes  a 
soft,  veiled  tone.  There  is  even  a  difference  in 
the  sound  of  a  tone  produced  by  the  pushing 
of  the  bow  upward  and  that  given  out  when  it 
is  drawn  downward.  The  use  of  the  toe  or  the 
heel  of  the  bow  also  makes  a  difference.  The 
toe  is  best  employed  for  a  delicate  touch,  while 
the  heel  is  used  for  short,  vigorous  notes.  All 
possible  gradations  between  a  smooth,  fluent 
cantilena  and  the  sharpest  staccato  are  possible 
to  the  violin,  and  can  be  employed  in  the  orches- 
tra with  excellent  effect. 

Rapid  alternating  strokes  of  the  bow  upward 
and  downward  produce  the  tremolo  effect, 
which  is  very  common  in  orchestral  music. 
Berlioz  notes,  with  his  customary  accuracy  in 
regard  to  instrumental  effects,  that  the  trem- 
olo of  violins  expresses  great  agitation  when 
played  by  many  violins  not  far  above  the  middle 
B  flat,  while  a  forte  on  the  middle  of  the  first 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

string  is  stormy  and  violent  Wagner's  "  Fly- 
ing Dutchman  "  overture  affords  admirable  ex- 
amples  of  both  these  effects. 

The  saltato  is  sometimes  employed.  This  is 
a  performance  of  rapid  successions  of  notes  by 
causing  the  bow  to  jump  on  the  strings  by  its 
own  elasticity  instead  of  drawing  it  smoothly. 
The  direction  col  legno,  sometimes  seen  in  or- 
chestra scores,  means  that  the  violinists  are 
to  use  the  backs  of  their  bows  instead  of  the 
hair.  This  produces  a  harsh,  grotesque  kind 
of  staccato,  and  it  is  a  method  employed  only 
in  music  with  something  of  grim  humor  in  it. 
Some  of  the  best  instances  of  its  employment  are 
to  be  found  in  Wagner's  "  Siegfried,"  where  it  is 
used  in  the  music  accompanying  Mimes  betrayal 
of  his  gleeful  expectations  of  Siegfried's  death. 

Pizzicato  is  a  term  used  to  express  the  pluck- 
ing of  the  strings  with  the  fingers.  This  is  a 
very  familiar  musical  effect.  In  earlier  times  it 
was  employed  very  little,  and  confined  chiefly 
to  the  basses.  It  is  very  common  in  modern 
music,  and  sometimes  whole  movements  are 
directed  to  be  played  in  this  manner.  The  fa- 
miliar pizzicato  movement  of  Delibes's  "  Sylvia" 
ballet  is  an  excellent  example. 

Sordines  are  little  contrivances  of  wood  or 
brass  with  teeth  which  can  be  pressed  down 
over  the  strings  so  as  to  deaden  their  vibra- 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

tions.  You  will  often,  if  you  are  observant, 
see  the  players  take  them  out  of  their  waistcoat- 
pockets  and  place  them  over  the  strings  of 
their  instruments  just  in  front  of  the  bridges. 
These  sordine,  or  mutes,  give  the  tone  of  the 
instrument  a  veiled  sound,  which  adds  to  the 
mournfulness  of  pathetic  music,  and  to  the 
mystery  of  anything  weird  or  strange.  In  the 
"  Queen  Mab  "  scherzo  of  Berlioz's  "  Romeo  et 
Juliette  "  symphony,  for  instance,  the  use  of 
the  sordines  adds  to  the  suggestion  of  the  su- 
pernatural world,  while  in  "Asa's  Death"  in 
Grieg's  "  Peer  Gynt  "  suite  they  deepen  the  im- 
pression of  crushing  sorrow.  For  the  benefit 
of  those  who  read  orchestral  scores  it  must  be 
added  that  the  direction  to  use  the  mutes  is  con 
sordini,  and  the  words  senza  sordini  signify  that 
their  use  is  to  be  discontinued.  The  use  of  the 
bow  after  a  pizzicato  passage  is  directed  by  the 
words  col  arco,  or  simply  arco  (the  bow). 

Violins  in  the  orchestra  are  divided  into  two 
bodies,  first  and  second.  A  friend  once  asked 
me :  "  What  is  the  difference  between  a  first 
and  a  second  violin  ?  "  The  question  amused 
me  and  I  repeated  it  to  my  friend,  Philip  Hale, 
the  brilliant  music  critic  of  the  Boston  Journal. 
He  promptly  answered:  "There  is  no  difference 
except  in  the  price."  That  is  quite  true.  Violins 
are  all  alike,  but  a  first-violin  player  is  some- 

iz 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

times  paid  more  than  a  second.  The  reason  for 
dividing  the  instruments  into  two  bodies  is  that 
the  middle  voices  of  the  harmony  may  be  prop- 
erly filled  out.  If  there  were  no  second  violins, 
the  violas,  which  we  shall  presently  consider, 
would  have  to  play  continually  in  their  upper 
register  in  order  to  fill  what  may  be  called  the 
contralto  part  of  the  harmony.  Then  the  'cellos 
would  have  to  be  pushed  up  into'the  tenor  reg- 
ister, and  there  would  be  a  big  gap  between 
them  and  the  low-toned  double-basses.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  the  violas  were  kept  down,  there 
would  be  a  gap  between  them  and  the  violins. 
But  by  dividing  the  violins,, into  two  bodies,  the 
second  violins  are  available  for  the  notes  of  the 
harmony  lying  between  those  sounded  by  the 
first  violins  and  those  given  out  by  the  violas. 
First  and  second  violins  can  frequently  play  the 
same  notes,  when  the  harmonic  support  is  con- 
fided to  the  wind-instruments,  and  thus  a  double 
amount  of  power  is  attained.  Indeed,  it  is  not 
uncommon  to  write  a  melody  for  all  the  violins, 
violas,  and  'cellos  to  sing  together,  with  wind 
accompaniment.  First  and  second  violins,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  often  subdivided  into  four 
or  more  parts.  So  are  all  the  other  stringed 
instruments.  This  is  an  effect  which  we  shall 
consider  more  in  detail  when  we  come  to  the 
extended  examination  of  the  separate  choirs. 

12 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 


THE  VIOLA 

This  adorable  instrument  always  reminds 
me  of  Shakespeare's  Viola — "  She  never  told 
her  love,  but  let  concealment,  like  a  worm  i'  the 
bud,  prey  on  her  damask  cheek."  The  viola 
speaks  often  enough,  but  no  one  recognizes  her 
voice.  She  is  unknown  to  the  average  concert- 
goer.  Kept  in  the  background  by  the  position 
of  the  players,  who  sit  behind  the  violins,  and 
by  the  unskilful  employment  of  the  earlier 
composers,  this  beautiful  and  expressive  mem- 
ber of  the  viol  family  is  almost  a  stranger  to 
lovers  of  music.  The  viola  is  nothing  more  or 
less  than  a  larger  violin  with  a  deeper  compass. 
The  violin  is  tuned,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
thus: 


The  viola  has  also  four  strings,  which  are 
tuned  thus : 


1 


In  order  to  avoid  the  inconvenience  of  writ- 
ing the  part  of  the  viola  in  two  clefs,  the  old 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

custom  of  writing  it  on  what  is  known  as  the 
alto  clef  is  continued.  The  peculiarities  of  clefs 
will  be  explained  in  a  separate  chapter.  The 
viola  is  both  a  tenor  and  a  contralto,  though 
it  is  usually  employed  in  modern  scores  to  dis- 
charge the  duties  of  a  tenor.  The  early  com- 
posers knew  so  little  about  its  expressive  power 
that  they  frequently  used  it  simply  to  reinforce 
the  basses.  The  most  recent  writers  have  gone 
to  the  other  extreme.  They  have  been  so  de* 
lighted  with  the  individuality  of  the  viola's 
tone  that  they  have  shown  a  tendency  to  over- 
work  it.  The  lowest  register  of  the  viola  has  a 
peculiarly  sepulchral  tone,  which  gives  it  a  dark 
and  threatening  character,  admirably  adapted 
to  the  demands  of  tragic  music.  In  its  middle 
register  the  viola  sings  with  a  peculiar  pathos 
which  cannot  be  imitated  by  any  other  instru- 
ment playing  in  the  same  region  of  pitch,  and 
even  in  the  higher  parts  of  its  scale  the  viola 
maintains  its  individuality  by  a  penetrating 
sweetness  and  gentleness  of  tone.  Neverthe- 
less, it  blends  well  with  other  stringed  instru- 
ments. If  a  composer  desires  to  write  a  long 
scale,  exceeding  the  downward  range  of  violins, 
he  can  pass  from  violins  to  violas,  and  so  to 
'cellos,  without  any  abrupt  change  of  tonal 
quality.  Again,  violas  can  be  used  to  reinforce 
Other  stringed  instruments,  as  in  the  beginning 

14 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

of  the  andante  con  moto  of  Beethoven's  Fifth 
Symphony,  where  they  play  the  melody  in 
unison  with  the  'cellos.  Meyerbeer,  Berlioz, 
and  Wagner  have  made  excellent  use  of  the 
characteristic  qualities  of  the  viola.  The  first 
named  gives  a  good  example  of  his  style  of  treat- 
ment in  the  viola  accompaniment  to  Raoul's 
romance,  "  Plus  blanche  que  la  blanche  her- 
mine,"  in  Act  I.  of  "  Les  Huguenots."  Berlioz 
employs  a  solo  viola  in  his  "  Harold  in  Italy  " 
symphony  to  represent  Byron's  melancholy 
wanderer.  Wagner  takes  advantage  of  the 
peculiar  tone-color  of  the  instrument  in  many 
places  in  his  scores.  A  familiar  example  is  that 
which  begins  the  bacchanalian  passage  in  the 
"  Tannhauser  "  overture : 


All  that  has  been  said  about  the  methods  of 
bowing,  tremolo,  pizzicato,  harmonics,  sordines, 
etc.,  applies  to  the  viola  as  well  as  to  the  vio- 
lin. 

THE  VIOLONCELLO 

This  instrument  is  so  well  known  that  it  will 
not  be  necessary  to  say  much  about  it.  Its 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

tone  and  its  various  effects  are  familiar  to  all 
concert-goers.  The  'cello  is  tuned  precisely 
as  the  viola  is,  but  an  octave  lower ; 


1 


The  compass  usually  employed  in  the  orches- 
tra is  three  and  one-half  octaves  from  the  low 
C  to  the  G  just  above  the  treble  staff.  This 
compass  may  be  increased  further  by  the  em- 
ployment of  harmonics.  Students  of  scores 
will  find  that  three  different  clefs  are  used  for 
'cello  music,  as  explained  in  the  account  of 
clefs. 

All  that  has  been  said  about  playing  the 
violin  applies  also  to  the  'cello,  though,  of 
course,  in  orchestral  music  the  'cello  is  not  ex- 
pected to  display  so  much  agility  as  the  violin. 
It  is  heard  to  the  best  advantage  in  broad  and 
fluent  melody.  As  Berlioz  justly  says :  "  Noth- 
ing is  more  voluptuously  melancholy  or  more 
suited  to  the  utterance  of  tender,  languishing 
themes  than  a  mass  of  violoncellos  playing  in 
unison  on  their  first  strings."  He  might  have 
added  that  nothing  is  more  expressive  of 
dignity  without  passion  than  the  lower  tones 
of  the  'cello  when  uttered  by  several  instru- 
ments at  once.  Owing  to  its  great  compass  the 
'cello  can  be  used  as  the  bass  of  the  string 

16 


Instruments  Played  with  the  Bow 

quartet,  as  a  solo  instrument,  or  as  the  singer 
of  the  melody  with  an  accompaniment  by  the 
other  strings. 

THE  DOUBLE-BASS 

The  irreverent  frequently  call  the  double- 
bass  the  "  bull  fiddle."  It  is  the  foundation  of 
the  string  choir  and  the  fundamental  bass  of 
the  whole  orchestra.  It  is  tuned  thus : 


It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the 
notes  sound  an  octave  lower  than  written. 
The  instrument  is  called  the  double-bass  be- 
cause it  was  used  in  early  times  to  double  the 
bass  part  played  by  the  'cello.  It  is  only  since 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  that 
it  has  generally  been  given  an  independent 
bass  part.  Beethoven  extended  its  powers  im- 
mensely and  revealed  capacities  which  earlier 
composers  did  not  suspect  the  instrument  of 
possessing.  Indeed,  some  of  Beethoven's  con- 
temporaries looked  askance  at  his  innovations. 
Weber  wrote  an  article  on  the  great  man's 
Fourth  Symphony.  In  it  he  depicted  himself 
as  hearing  in  a  dream  the  comments  of  the  in- 

17 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

struments  of  the  orchestra.  The  contra-bass 
(double-bass)  says : 

"  I  have  just  come  from  the  rehearsal  of  a 
symphony  by  one  of  our  newest  composers ; 
and  though,  as  you  know,  I  have  a  tolerably 
strong  constitution,  I  could  only  just  hold  out, 
and  five  minutes  more  would  have  shattered 
my  frame  and  burst  the  sinews  of  my  life.  I 
have  been  made  to  caper  about  like  a  wild 
goat,  and  to  turn  myself  into  a  mere  fiddle  to 
execute  the  no-ideas  of  Mr.  Composer." 

The  time  had  not  yet  come  for  the  famous 
recitative  passage  of  the  basses  in  the  Ninth 
Symphony.  The  same  methods  of  bowing, 
etc.,  as  are  applied  to  the  violin  are  applied  to 
the  double-bass,  but  without  any  attempt  at 
great  agility.  Harmonics  can  be  produced  from 
the  double-bass,  and  have  been  used  occasion- 
ally with  good  effect. 


18 


II 

Wind-instruments  of  Wood 

THE   FLUTE 

NEXT  in  importance  to  the  strings  is  the 
wood-wind,  which  is  divided  into  three 
families — flutes,  oboes,  and  clarinets.  To  the 
first  family  belong  the  piccolo  and  the  flute ;  to 
the  second  the  oboe,  English  horn,  and  bassoon, 
and  to  the  third  the  clarinet  and  bass  clarinet. 
In  the  modern  orchestra,  flutes,  clarinets,  oboes, 
and  bassoons  are  usually  employed  in  pairs, 
while  there  is,  if  needed,  one  piccolo,  one  Eng- 
lish horn,  and  one  bass  clarinet.  The  flute  is 
the  most  agile  of  the  wind-instruments,  and 
is  employed  very  freely  in  the  orchestra.  Its 
compass  is  three  octaves  upward  from  the  C 
below  the  treble  clef,  but  the  two  uppermost 
notes  are  seldom  used.  The  tone  is  soft  and 
sweet  in  the  medium  register,  clear  and  pene- 
trating in  the  upper,  and  singularly  character- 
istic in  the  lower.  Rapid  passages  are  readily 
executed  on  the  flute,  but  the  instrument's  pow- 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

ers  of  expression  are  limited,  owing  partly  to 
its  tone-quality  and  partly  to  the  impossibility 
of  giving  a  wide  crescendo  or  diminuendo  to 
any  passage  played  upon  it. 

Nevertheless,  it  can  be  employed  expressively 
when  used  with  judgment.  Berlioz  calls  atten- 
tion to  Gluck's  use  of  it  in  his  "  Orfeo  "  in  the 
scene  in  the  Elysian  fields,  where  it  voices  the 
humility  and  resignation  of  the  bereaved  hus- 
band. In  the  upper  register  rapid  sequences 
for  the  flute  have  an  air  of  gayety.  Well- 
known  passages  which  illustrate  this  are  that 
near  the  close  of  the  "  Leonora  "  overture  No. 
3,  and  that  near  the  close  of  the  finale  of  the 
"  Eroica  "  symphony.  The  piccolo,  or  octave- 
flute,  is  simply  a  small,  shrill-voiced  flute,  sound- 
ing an  octave  higher  than  the  ordinary  instru- 
ment. The  sounds  in  its  second  octave  are  well 
adapted  to  pieces  of  a  joyous  character,  while 
its  upper  register  is  useful  for  violent  effects, 
such  as  a  storm  or  a  scene  in  the  infernal  re- 
gions. In  grotesque  and  supernatural  scenes  it 
is  also  often  employed  with  good  results. 

THE  OBOE 

The  oboe  is  a  reed  instrument  with  a  pecul- 
iar pastoral  tone,  which,  when  once  recognized, 
can  never  again  be  mistaken  for  that  of  another 

20 


Bassoon. 


French  Horn. 


Trombone. 


Clarinet. 


Bass  Clarinet. 


Flute. 


Wind-instruments  of  Wood 


instrument.  It  is  not  possible  to  describe  this 
tone,  beyond  saying  that  the  average  hearer 
thinks  of  it  as  the  tone  of  a  shepherd's  pipe. 
The  instrument  is  so  well  suited  to  pastoral 
music  that  the  principal  melody  is  almost  al- 
ways given  to  it  in  passages  having  such  a 
character.  Rapid  passages,  except  in  rare  in- 
stances, are  not  suited  to  the  utterance  of  the 
oboe,  though  when  it  joins  with  the  whole  mass 
of  instruments  in  a  tutti,  anything  that  is  not 
impossible  may  be  written  for  it.  But  it  is 
essentially  a  lyric  instrument  of  tender  expres- 
sion, and  it  is  seldom  called  upon  for  either 
gayety  or  tragedy.  Berlioz  says  :  "  Candor,  art- 
less  grace,  soft  joy,  or  the  grief  of  a  fragile  be- 
ing, suits  the  oboe's  accents.  It  expresses  them 
admirably  in  its  cantabile."  An  excellent  ex- 
ample of  the  oboe's  quality  as  a  tender  lyric 
singer  is  the  opening  of  the  slow  movement  of 
Schubert's  symphony  in  C  : 


Oboe. 


Strings.  ( 


21 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


I/    r          r_f^ 

Wf^r 

•  m-Pp-  m  »*«- 

yf      'H'  - 

g  j—  1      =r=P= 

br: 

= 

j  i  j 

•uLj 

rj  i  »r  -   •  - 

fe  *J  n   J*^= 

L-s 

<• 

—  1 

: 

I 

^^ 

•^     -*- 
IP       1 

Its  pastoral  character  is  illustrated  by  hun- 
dreds of  familiar  passages.  Perhaps  none  is 
more  familiar  than  this  from  the  first  scene  of 
Gounod's  "  Faust." 


m 


To  the  oboe  belongs  the  duty  of  sounding  the 
A  to  which  the  whole  orchestra  tunes.  This 
privilege  dates  from  the  time  of  Handel,  when 
it  was  the  principal  wind-instrument  employed 
in  the  band. 

22 


Wind-instruments  of  Wood 


THE  ENGLISH  HORN 

The  English  horn  is  not,  as  its  name  seems 
to  imply,  an  instrument  of  brass,  but  of  wood. 
It  is,  in  fact,  an  alto  oboe.  Its  compass  is  from 
the  E  below  the  treble  clef  to  the  F  on  the  fifth 
line.  This  carries  it  five  tones  below  the  oboe. 
Its  tone  is  similar  to  that  of  the  oboe,  but  is 
heavier  and  has  a  dryer  quality.  Its  character 
is  less  feminine,  more  sombre,  and  more  pa- 
thetic. Yet  it  is  not  incapable  of  joyous  ex- 
pression, if  the  expression  is  not  strained  by  the 
context.  In  all  the  range  of  music  there  are  no 
such  examples  of  the  eloquence  of  the  English 
horn  as  in  the  works  of  Wagner,  who  made  it 
speak  with  a  human  voice.  The  finest  instances 
of  its  powers  are  to  be  found  in  his  later  dramas, 
and  perhaps  the  most  familiar  are  in  "  Tristan 
und  Isolde."  The  English  horn  is  the  instru- 
ment which  imitates  the  shepherd's  pipe  in  the 
melancholy  wail  of  Act  III.,  played  while  Tris- 
tan is  waiting  for  news  of  the  ship. 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

When  the  ship  is  sighted  by  the  herdsman, 
his  pipe  (still  the  English  horn)  bursts  into  this 
psean  of  joy : 


A  llegro. 


THE  BASSOON 

The  bassoon  is  the  bass  of  the  oboe,  and  it 
occupies  among  the  wood-wind  instruments  a 
position  similar  to  that  of  the  'cello  among  the 
strings.  Its  upper  tones  resemble  somewhat 
those  of  the  English  horn,  while  its  lower  tones 
are  deep  and  hoarse.  /  Its  extreme  compass  is 
from  the  B  flat  below  the  bass  clef  to  the  F_a_t 
^hejtop  of  the  treble^but  the  last  four  notes  are 
uncertain  and  of  unnatural  quality.  Music  for 
the  bassoon,  like  that  for  the  'cello,  is  written 
on  three  clefs — bass,  tenor,  and  treble.  Bas- 
soons are  employed  in  pairs  in  the  orchestra. 
They  are  used  either  to  fill  out  the  harmo- 
nies, to  strengthen  the  bass,  or  as  solo  instru- 
ments. • 

The  bassoon  is  capable  of  a  great  variety  of 
effects.  Its  upper  register  has  a  pastoral  qual- 

24 


Wind-instruments  of  Wood 


ity,  combined  with  a  certain  plaintiveness,  which 
makes  it  suitable  to  the  utterance  of  gentle 
grief  or  melancholy.  Composers  have  frequent- 
ly availed  themselves  of  the  humorous  effects 
to  be  obtained  by  making  the  bassoon  play 
music  which  ill  comports  with  the  quality  of 
its  tone.  The  effect  is  really  funny,  though 
the  fun  arises,  not  from  the  inherent  humor  of 
the  instrument,  but  from  the  incongruity  of  the 
singer  and  the  song.  The  most  familiar  ex- 
ample of  this  kind  of  fun  is  in  the  clown's  march 
in  Mendelssohn's  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  " 
music: 


Earrocms. 


Violineello. 


There  is  also  a  contra-bass  bassoon,  which 
sounds  an  octave  lower  than  the  ordinary  bas- 
soon. The  reader  will  find  that  in  orchestra 
scores  the  bassoons  are  usually  designated  by 
their  Italian  title,  fagotti.  This  name  is  ap- 
plied to  the  instrument  because  it  resembles 
two  sticks  bound  together,  as  in  a  bundle  of 
fagots. 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


THE  CLARINET 

The  clarinet  is  a  wind-instrument  of  wood 
with  a  very  mellow  and  beautiful  tone.  It 
differs  from  the  oboe  chiefly  in  the  construction 
of  its  mouth-piece,  which  contains  the  sound- 
producing  mechanism.  The  instruments  of 
the  oboe  family  have  mouth-pieces  with  two 
vibrating  reeds;  those  of  the  clarinet  family 
have  only  one  reed.  This  accounts  chiefly  for 
the  difference  in  the  character  of  the  tone. 
The  compass  of  the  clarinet  is  from  the  E  be- 
low the  treble  clef  three  octaves  and  a  half  up- 
ward. The  notes  of  the  uppermost  octave  are 
shrill  and  are  seldom  used.  They  are  employed 
occasionally  when  a  screaming  effect  is  desired. 
Clarinets  are  used  in  pairs  in  the  orchestra, 
sometimes  to  fill  out  harmonies,  and  frequently 
for  solo  effects.  There  is  hardly  anything  which 
cannot  be  done  with  a  clarinet,  for  the  instru- 
ment is  capable  of  great  agility  and  brilliancy, 
and  at  the  same  time  is  the  most  expressive  of 
all  the  wind-instruments.  It  can  be  played 
pianissimo  or  fortissimo  through  most  of  its 
compass,  and  the  most  beautiful  crescendo  and 
diminuendo  effects  can  be  obtained.  There  is 
no  more  familiar  example  of  the  high  expres- 
siveness of  the  clarinet  than  that  found  in  the 

26 


Wind-instruments  of  Wood 


overture  to  "  Tannhauser,"  where  the  clarinet 
intones  the  pleading  passage  afterward  sung  in 
the  first  scene  by  Venus  : 


The  reader  will  find  that  in  scores  the  clarinet 
part  is  usually  written  in  some  other  key  than 
that  of  the  composition.  This  is  because  three 
kinds  of  clarinet  are  employed,  clarinets  in  A, 
B  flat,  and  C.  A  clarinet  in  B  flat  means  one 
whose  pitch  is  a  whole  tone  below  the  standard, 
so  that  when  one  plays  the  scale  of  C  natural 
on  it  he  gets  the  sounds  of  the  scale  of  B  flat, 
just  as  he  would  from  a  piano  tuned  a  whole 
>)ne  too  low.  A  clarinet  in  A  is  a  tone  and  a 
half  below  pitch  in  the  scale  of  C.  One  in  C 
produces  the  scale  of  C  when  played  in  C.  The 
reason  for  using  different  kinds  of  clarinets  is 
that  it  is  difficult  to  play  the  instrument  in  re- 
mote keys.  By  using  an  A  clarinet  for  keys 
having  sharps  and  a  B  flat  clarinet  for  keys  hav- 
ing flats,  much  of  the  difficulty  is  obviated.  A 

27 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

clarinet  in  A  is  producing  the  sounds  of  the  key 
of  three  sharps  when  it  is  playing  in  C.  To 
get  the  sounds  of  the  key  of  six  sharps,  it  is 
necessary  only  to  write  for  the  A  clarinet  in 
three  sharps.  Similarly,  to  get  the  sounds  of 
the  key  of  five  flats  one  needs  only  to  write  in 
three  flats  for  a  clarinet  in  B  flat.  The  kind  of 
clarinet  to  be  used  is  designated  in  the  score. 
Instruments  treated  in  this  manner  are  called 
transposing  instruments.  (See  Chapter  V.) 

THE  BASS  CLARINET 

The  bass  clarinet  is  a  clarinet  whose  compass 
extends  an  octave  below  that  of  the  B  flat  clari- 
net. It  is  a  long  instrument  with  a  curved 
bell  at  the  lower  end,  so  that  it  looks  like  an 
old-fashioned  Dutch  pipe.  Bass  clarinets  in  B 
flat  and  A  are  employed,  and  the  music  is  usu- 
ally written  on  the  treble  clef,  thus  transposing 
an  octave  below.  Wagner  uses  the  bass  clef, 
which  is  more  convenient  for  the  student  of  his 
scores  than  for  the  performer.  The  tone  of  the 
lower  register  of  the  bass  clarinet  is  sonorous 
and  rich,  and  affords  a  fine  bass  for  wood-wind 
passages. 

As  a  solo  instrument  the  bass  clarinet  is 
admirable  in  its  dignity.  The  instrument  is 
used  singly,  not  in  pairs.  As  a  fine  example 

28 


Wind-instruments  of  Wood 


of  the  effect  of  the  bass  clarinet,  the  music  of 
Elizabeth's  final  exit  in  Act  III.  of  "  Tannhau- 
ser  "  may  be  commended. 


PI'M  lento.. 


Three  Flutes. 

f^KS 

»  i       g        g 

^i—  ?—  |=S 

8  Clarinets. 

-yg-v?    » 

~9 

1-P-  F   F  c 

>  Ji-  1      I     -|  u- 

Bass  Clarinet. 

-r^H^ 

-^'      r-j-3 

"Pnij    '    £; 

i        •••"  •  i 

&&&- 


etc. 


Ill 

Wind-instruments  of  Brass 

THE  HORN 

THE  brass  choir  is  composed  of  horns,  trum- 
pets, and  trombones,  with  the  addition  in 
most  modern  scores  of  a  contra-bass  tuba. 
Wagner  has  used  also  bass  trumpets  and  tenor 
tubas  to  enrich  the  color  of  this  part  of  his  or- 
chestra.  The  horn,  or  French  horn,  as  it  is 
often  called,  is  the  old  hunting  horn  adapted  to 
orchestral  purposes.  It  is  an  extremely  valua- 
ble instrument,  because  it  has  a  most  noble  and 
expressive  tone,  which  makes  it  very  interesting 
as  a  solo  voice,  and  equally  because  it  blends 
admirably  with  either  strings  or  wood,  as  well 
as  with  brass.  In  the  older  compositions  the 
reader  will  find  that  two  horns  were  used,  but 
it  is  customary  with  modern  composers  to  em- 
ploy four,  thus  making  a  full  four-part  harmony 
possible.  Wagner  generally  doubles  his  horn 
parts,  requiring  eight  instruments. 

It  was  impossible  in  earlier  times  to  play  in 


Wind-instruments  of  Brass 

all  keys  on  any  one  horn,  and  so  horns  in  vari- 
ous keys  had  to  be  used.  The  reader  will  find 
that  many  scores  call  for  horns  in  D,  in  E  flat, 
in  B  flat,  etc.  Players  now  use  almost  exclu- 
sively the  horn  in  F,  with  valves,  upon  which 
it  is  possible  to  play  in  all  keys.  It  is  custom- 
ary with  many  composers,  however,  to  write 
horn  parts  in  various  keys,  and  the  players 
have  to  transpose  them.  As  no  opera  is  more 
familiar  than  "  Faust,"  the  reader  may  readily 
identify  the  horn  as  a  solo  instrument  in  the 
first  act  when  Mephistopheles  shows  Faust  the 
vision  of  Marguerite. 

Svabasia  ..................................................  ...... 

r-&&$s  -      m   F   if   f   fm*i          m   l*i*  i  P    f   ^j>  i  P    T~   »-   i 

'   £          ---^        '    ' 


In  Wagner's  "  Siegfried  "  the  horn  plays  all 
the  passages  which  the  young  hero  is  supposed 
to  intone  on  his  hunting  horn.  The  quartet  of 
horns  employed  in  the  modern  orchestra  is  fre- 
quently heard  alone,  and  the  effect  of  this  full 
harmony  of  mellow  brass  is  incomparably  fine. 
Such  effects  are  heard  in  the  hunting  fanfare 
which  precedes  the  entrance  of  the  Landgrave 
and  his  party  in  Act  I.  of  "  Tannhauser,"  and  in 
the  echoing  through  the  woods  of  the  depart- 
ing hunt  in  the  beginning  of  Act  II.  of  "  Tristan 
und  Isolde."  It  must  not  be  supposed,  how- 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

ever,  that  horn  quartets  are  used  only  for  hunt- 
ing effects.  One  has  only  to  recall  the  beauti- 
ful passage  in  Saint-Saen's  "  Phaeton." 


Stopped  tones  are  frequently  given  to  the 
horns.  These  are  produced  by  inserting  the 
hand  in  the  bell  of  the  instrument,  where  it  has 
an  effect  not  unlike  that  of  a  sordine  on  a  violin- 
string.  The  quality  of  stopped  tones  is  nasal 
and  stertorous.  They  are  used  with  much  sig- 
nificance in  dramatic  music. 


THE  TRUMPET 

This  fine  instrument,  the  soprano  of  the  brass 
choir,  was  often  formerly  replaced  by  the  cornet. 
All  symphonic  orchestras  have  abandoned  the 
cornet  for  the  trumpet,  as  demanded  by  com- 

32 


Wind-instruments  of  Brass 


and  Walter  Damrosch's  orchestra.  The  trum- 
pet has  a  full,  round,  brilliant  tone,  for  which 
that  of  the  blatant  and  brassy  cornet  is  not  a 
good  substitute.  But  it  is  much  easier  to  get 
good  cornet-players  than  good  trumpeters,  so 
the  cornet  is  quite  common.  The  pealing,  mili- 
tant character  of  the  trumpet  is  always  associ- 
ated in  the  mind  with  that  of  the  army  bugle, 
which  it  closely  resembles.  The  trumpets  are 
usually  employed  in  chords  written  for  the 
brass,  or  in  the  big  mass  effeots  of  the  orches- 
tra. They  are  seldom  called  upon  to  intone 
a  melody  except  in  passages  in  which  the  brass 
plays  alone,  or  when  a  very  brilliant  and  forci- 
ble orchestration  is  used.  The  instrument  is 
so  familiar  that  no  illustration  is  necessary. 
Trumpets  in  various  keys  were  formerly  al- 
ways employed,  but  it  is  now  customary  to  use 
chiefly  the  F  trumpet,  with  valves.  Cornets 
employed  in  the  orchestra  are  in  A  and  B  flat. 
There  is  a  high  cornet  in  E  flat,  but  it  is  used 
only  in  military  bands.  Stopped  tones  are 
easily  produced  from  the  cornet  or  trumpet, 
and  are  often  used  for  comic  effects.  They 
sound  much  like  the  voice  of  a  person  singing 
in  a  falsetto  voice  through  his  nose.  Trumpets 
and  cornets  are  generally  used  in  pairs  in  the 
orchestra. 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


THE  TROMBONE 

The  trombone  is  one  of  the  noblest  of  all  or- 
chestral instruments.  When  it  sounds  ignoble, 
it  is  either  because  its  part  is  not  well  written 
or  because  it  is  badly  played.  In  respect  of 
register  there  are  three  principal  kinds  of  trom- 
bones— alto,  tenor,  and  bass.  The  alto  has  a 
compass  extending  from  A  at  the  bottom  of  the 
bass  clef  to  the  E  flat  in  the  top  space  of  the 
treble  clef.  The  tenor  ranges  from  E  below 
the  bass  clef  to  the  B  flat  in  the  middle  of  the 
treble  clef,  and  this  is  the  instrument  most  fre- 
quently employed.  The  bass  trombone's  regis- 
ter runs  from  B  below  the  bass  to  the  F  in  the 
first  space  of  the  treble  clef.  The  alto  trom- 
bone is  in  E  flat,  the  tenor  in  B  flat,  and  the 
bass  in  F.  There  is  also  a  contra-bass  trom- 
bone in  B  flat,  sounding  an  octave  lower  than 
the  tenor  trombone.  It  is  very  fatiguing  to 
play,  and  is  usually  replaced  by  the  tuba,  whose 
tone  is  of  a  considerably  different  character. 
Although  all  these  trombones  stand  in  keys 
other  than  C,  they  are  not  treated  as  transpos- 
ing, but  are  written  in  the  key  of  the  composi- 
tion. 

The  tone  of  the  trombone  is  grave  and  ma- 
jestic, but  it  may  be  made  to  rage  hoarsely.  In 

34 


Wind  Instruments  of  Brass 


all  solemn  or  broadly  dignified  music  trombones 
play  a  conspicuous  part.  It  is  customary  to 
write  in  three  parts  for  these  instruments,  but 
when  necessary  they  may  be  made  to  play  in 
unison,  as  in  the  proclamation  of  the  pilgrims' 
chorus  in  the  overture  to  "  Tannhauser,"  or  the 
curse  motive  in  various  parts  of  the  Nibelung 
series.  A  fine  example  of  the  employment  of 
trombones  in  several  parts  is  to  be  found  in 
the  first  act  of  "  Die  Walkiire  "  on  the  first  ap- 
pearance of  the  "  Walhalla  "  motive. 


3  Tenor  Trombones. 


Pfip 

EBCXm 

Csntra-bass  Trombone. 


1 


s-'Cr" 


THE  TUBA 

The  tuba  is  a  deep-toned  brass  instrument  of 
double-bass  quality.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  double- 
bass  of  the  brass  choir.  Its  quality  of  tone  is 
noble  and  blends  well  with  that  of  trombones, 
The  instrument  usually  employed  in  the  modern 
orchestra  is  the  bass  tuba  in  B  flat.  Wagner  em- 
ploys  tenor  tubas  in  the  funeral  march  of  the 
"  Gotterdammerung"  in  order  to  get  a  gener- 
ally consistent  sombre  color  in  the  brass.  He 

35 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

uses  in  other  places  both  bass  and  contra-bass 
tubas,  but  his  writing  for  these  instruments 
cannot  be  regarded  as  invariably  felicitous. 

The  tuba  is  really  a  member  of  the  large 
family  of  Saxhorns,  of  which  there  are  six  prin- 
cipal types,  all  in  E  flat  or  B  flat.  These  are 
the  sopranino,  or  piccolo  Saxhorn  in  E  flat  (A 
below  treble  to  B  flat  above),  soprano  Saxhorn 
in  B  flat  (German  fliigelhorn — E  below  treble 
to  B  flat  above),  alto  in  E  flat  (bass  A  to  E 
flat  in  fourth  space  of  treble),  tenor  in  B  flat  (E 
below  bass  to  B  flat  treble),  bass  in  B  flat,  called 
in  Germany  bass  tuba,  and  in  England  eupho- 
nium (B  flat  below  bass  to  F  above  it),  bass  in  E 
flat  (same  compass  less  one  upper  note),  and 
contra-bass  in  B  flat  (E  flat  an  octave  below  the 
bass  to  F  on  the  third  line).  These  instruments 
belong  primarily  to  the  military  band,  but  an 
orchestral  composer  may  employ  any  of  them 
that  suit  his  purpose. 

In  some  older.,  scores  the  music-lover  will 
find  instead  of  the  tuba  the  ophicleide,  which  is 
the  bass  of  the  keyed  bugle  family.  Its  coarse 
and  blatant  tone  is  happily  replaced  by  that  of 
the  tuba. 


IV 

Other  Instruments 

THE  TYMPANI 

THE  tympani,  or  kettle-drums,  belong  to  the 
department  of  instruments  of  percussion. 
They  are  the  only  drums  which  can  be  tuned 
to  sound  certain  notes.  The  other  instruments 
of  percussion  need  not  be  described  until  the 
department  is  discussed  as  a  whole.  The  older 
composers  employed  only  two  kettle-drums. 
The  modern  writers  often  use  three  and  some- 
times four.  There  are  low  and  high  kettle- 
drums. The  low  drum  can  be  tuned  to  any 
note  from  F  below  the  bass  clef  to  C  in  the 
second  space,  and  the  high  drum  from  B  flat  on 
the  second  line  to  F  on  the  fourth.  The  early 
composers  used  kettle-drums  almost  invariably 
with  the  trumpets,  and  found  no  better  employ, 
ment  for  them  than  the  accentuation  of  rhythm 
and  changes  of  harmony.  Beethoven,  who  was 
one  of  the  keenest  of  all  composers  in  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  individuality  of  instruments,  saw 

37 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

that  the  kettle-drums  could  be  used  for  special 
effects. 

The  early  composers  always  tuned  them  to 
the  tonic  key  and  its  dominant.  Beethoven,  in 
the  scherzo  of  the  Ninth  Symphony,  tuned  them 
in  octaves  and  produced  a  striking  effect. 
Again  in  the  slow  movement  of  the^ame  sym- 
phony he  made  the  two  drums  play  simulta- 
neously on  two  notes  of  a  chord.  This  also  was 
novel.  In  the  andante  of  his  First  Symphony 
he  had  already  made  the  tympani  play  the  bass 
to  a  melody  of  violins  and  flutes,  and  in  the 
Fourth  Symphony  the  tympani  take  their  turn 
with  the  other  instruments  in  playing  the  theme 
of  two  notes  often  repeated.  The  solo  effects 
of  the  tympani  in  the  scherzo  of  the  Fifth  Sym- 
phony and  in  the  opening  of  the  violin  concerto 
are  well  known.  Beethoven  thus  paved  the 
way  for  subsequent  composers  to  make  a  wide 
and  varied  use  not  only  of  the  tympani  but 
of  other  percussive  instruments. 

Other  instruments  of  percussion  employed  in 
the  orchestra  arc  the  military  snare  drum,  bass 
drum,  cymbals,  triangle,  tambourine,  castanets, 
the  carillon  (a  set  of  steel  bars  which  produce 
sounds  like  those  of  small  bells),  the  xylophone, 
large  bells  (or  heavy  steel  tubes  to  imitate 
them),  and  the 


Other  Instruments 


THE   HARP 

The  reader  will  look  in  vain  for  the  harp  in 
the  older  symphonic  scores.  It  was  in  its 
early  employment  wholly  an  instrument  of  the 
theatre.  Although  it  found  its  way  into  the 
orchestra  early,  it  was  not  employed  as  a 
genuine  orchestral  instrument.  Up  to  the 
beginning  of  the  present  century,  as  Gevaert 
has  clearly  pointed  out,  composers  used  it  for 
the  sake  of  its  historical  character.  Thus  Han- 
del introduced  it  in  the  first  version  of  his 
"  Esther"  (1720),  Gluck  in  his  "  Orfeo"  (1762), 
and  Beethoven  in  his  "Prometheus"  ballet 
(1799).  In  Gluck's  "  Orfeo,"  for  example,  the 
harp  is  heard  only  when  Orpheus  is  supposed 
to  play  on  the  instrument  carried  by  him.  In 
this  same  manner  Wagner  employs  the  harp  in 
"  Tannhauser."  It  was  employed  in  a  similar 
manner  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century 
by  composers  for  the  theatre,  chiefly  in  France. 
Biblical  and  classical  subjects,  in  which  the 
harps  of  the  daughters  of  Israel  or  the  lyres  of 
Greece  and  Rome  might  be  heard,  naturally 
suggested  the  use  of  the  harp,  and  thus  it  was 
employed  by  Mehul  in  his  "Joseph"  (1809), 
Spontini  in  "LaVestale"  (1807),  and  Rossini 
in  "  Moise"  (1827).  Again,  scenes  in  Scotland 

39 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

or  Ireland  required  the  local  color  of  the  glee- 
man's  harp,  and  for  this  purpose  it  was  em- 
ployed by  M6hul  in  his  "  Uthal"  (1803),  Le- 
sueur  in  "  Les  Bardes"  (1807),  and  Catel  in 
"Wallace"  (1817). 

The  perfection  of  the  pedal  mechanism  by 
Sebastian  Erard  in  1810  led  to  a  much  wider 
use  of  the  harp.  Meyerbeer  and  Wagner  began 
to  use  it  extensively  in  their  operas,  and  Ber- 
lioz introduced  it  into  symphonic  music  of  the 
romantic  school. 

The  harp  is  provided  with  seven  pedals,  oper- 
ated by  the  player's  feet.  By  means  of  these 
pedals  the  tension  of  the  strings  can  be  in- 
stantly  altered,  thus  changing  the  pitch  of  the 
scale,  or,  in  other  words,  putting  the  harp  into 
another  key.  It  is  this  mechanism  which  en- 
ables the  harpist  of  to-day  to  play  in  all  keys, 
while  in  earlier  times  only  a  few  were  practi- 
cable. 

The  reader  of  orchestra  scores  will  find  that 
harp  parts  are  written  on  two  staves,  like 
piano  music,  and  placed  in  the  score  just  above 
the  parts  of  the  string  quintet.  The  harp  is  a 
non-transposing  instrument  and  its  music  is 
written  as  it  sounds.  Sometimes,  however,  in 
remote  keys  composers  remove  some  of  a  harp- 
player's  difficulties  by  changing  the  key  signa- 
ture. For  instance,  certain  kinds  of  passages, 

40 


Other  Instruments 


if  written  in  the  key  of  B  natural,  are  very 
difficult  for  the  harp,  whereas  if  written  in  C 
flat  (which  sounds  precisely  the  same)  they  be- 
come easy.  This  is  because  the  Erard  system 
of  tuning  makes  C  flat  the  fundamental  key  of 
the  harp. 

The  instrument  is  much  used  in  our  day  in 
orchestral  music,  as  well  as  in  the  opera.  Its 
treatment  is  usually  either  in  broad  chords,  as 
in  the  air  "  Roi  du  ciel  "  in  Meyerbeer's  "  Le 
Prophete,"  or  in  running  arpeggios,  as  in 
"  Anges  purs  et  radieux  "  in  "  Faust."  Gliss- 
ando  effects — smooth-running  passages  pro- 
duced by  sliding  the  hands  rapidly  over  the 
strings  without  stopping  to  pluck  them — are 
often  used  in  modern  music,  as  in  the  orchestral 
arrangements  of  Liszt's  Hungarian  rhapsodies. 
Harmonics  can  be  produced  on  the  harp.  They 
sound  like  the  faint  tinkle  of  a  muffled  glass 
bell,  and  are  very  pretty  when  properly  applied. 
A  familiar  example  is  to  be  found  in  the  waltz 
of  the  sylphs  in  the  ballet  music  of  Berlioz's 
"  Damnation  of  Faust." 

Wagner  has  used  the  harp  very  freely  in  his 
music  dramas.  Sometimes  he  employs  it  his- 
torically, sometimes  for  the  sake  of  its  luxuriant 
tone  in  the  accompaniment  of  lyric  song,  and 
again  with  a  remarkable  insight  into  its  power 
of  combination  with  other  instruments  in  de- 

41 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


scriptive  music.  In  this  latter  manner  it  is 
superbly  used  in  the  magic  fire-music  of  "  Die 
Walkure : " 


Wood 
wind. 


Horns. 


Harps. 


§ 


*&=«=« 


etc. 


V 

The  Orchestral  Score 

THE  printed  form  of  an  orchestral  composi- 
tion, or  one  for  voices  and  orchestra,  is 
called  a  score.  (German,  Partitur.)  In  it  are 
comprised  the  parts  to  be  played  by  all  the  in- 
struments. It  is  read  across  the  page  precisely 
as  a  piece  of  piano  music  is,  with  the  important 
difference  that  while  in  a  piano  piece  there  are 
only  two  staves — one  for  the  treble  and  one  for 
the  bass — in  an  orchestral  score  there  are  from 
sixteen  to  twenty-four,  according  to  the  number 
of  the  parts.  The  name  of  the  instrument  is 
printed  at  the  beginning  of  its  part  and  also  the 
key  in  which  it  stands,  if  it  is  a  transposing  in- 
strument. The  customary  order  of  the  instru- 
ments from  top  to  bottom  of  the  page  is  as  fol- 
lows :  Flutes,  oboes,  clarinets,  bassoons,  horns, 
trumpets,  trombones,  tuba,  tympani,  and  other 
instruments  of  percussion,  harps,  violins,  violas, 
'cellos,  and  double-basses.  This  order  is  some- 
times changed  for  the  sake  of  convenience.  If 
there  are  voices,  as  in  an  opera  or  oratorio, 
they  will  be  found  in  the  older  scores  between 

43 


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How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


the  viola  and  'cello  parts.  The  more  modern 
custom  is  to  put  them  above  the  first  violins, 
so  that  the  parts  of  the  string  choir  are  not 
separated.  In  a  concerto  the  solo  instrument 
is  similarly  placed.  The  names  of  the  instru- 
ments of  the  score  are  usually  given  in  Italian, 
but  sometimes  in  German.  The  following  list 
gives  the  names  of  the  instruments  in  English, 
Italian,  German,  and  French,  with  the  plurals 
where  needed : 


Italian. 

Flute Flauto(i) 

..Oboe(i) 


Oboe 

English  Horn. 

Clarinet 

Bassoon 

Horn 

Trumpet...... 

Cornet 

Trombone .... 

Tuba 

Bass  Drum.  . . 

Cymbals 

Kettle-drums  . 

Harp 

Violin Violino 

Viola Viola 

Violoncello Violoncello 

Bass Basso 


Corno  Inglese. .. . 

.  Clarinetto(i) 

.Fagotto(i) 

.Corno(i) 

.Tromba(e) 

.  Cometto(i) 

.Trombono(i) 

.Tuba 

.Gran  Cassa 

.  Piatti 

.Timpani 

.Arpa 


German.  French. 

...Flote(n) Flute. 

.  ..Hoboe(n) Hautbois. 

. . .  Englische  Horn Cor  Anglais. 

. . .  Clarinette(n) Clarinette. 

...Fagott(e) 

.  ..Horn(er) 

. . . .  Trompete(n) 

Cornet(te)  . .' 

. .  ..Posaune(n) 

....Tuba 

. . . .  Grosse  Trommel . 

....Becken 

.  ...Pauken 

....Harfe Harpe. 

. . . .  Geige Violone. 

. . . .  Bratsche Alto. 

. . . .  Violoncell Violoncello. 

. . . .  Bass Contrebasse. 


. .  Basson. 

..Cor. 

. .  Trompette. 

. .  Cornette  a  pistons. 

.  .Trombone. 

. .  Tuba. 

. .  Grosse  Caisse. 

.  .Cymbales. 

. .  Timbales. 


In  German  scores  the  Italian  names  are  often 
used.  Sometimes  each  instrument  has  a  sepa- 
rate staff,  but  more  frequently  a  pair  of  instru- 
ments, as  two  flutes,  or  two  oboes,  is  written 
on  one  staff.  In  such  cases  the  tails  of  the 

46 


The  Orchestral  Score 


notes  for  the  upper  instrument  are  turned  up 
and  of  those  for  the  lower  down.  If  there  are 
two  sets  of  tails,  one  up  and  one  down,  to  one 
set  of  notes,  it  indicates  that  two  instruments 
are  to  play  the  same  passage.  In  the  case  of 
four  horns,  two  staves  are  used,  the  upper  for 
the  first  and  second  and  the  lower  for  the  third 
and  fourth.  In  old  scores  the  reader  will  find 
many  different  orders  of  placing  the  instru- 
ments on  the  page.  That  which  I  have  given 
is  the  present  method. 

The  reader  will  find  many  directions  and  ab- 
breviations in  scores  not  used  in  piano  music. 
The  meaning  of  any  of  these  can  be  ascertained 
by  consulting  a  dictionary  of  music.  One  or 
two  may  be  explained  here.  The  word  "  di- 
visi "  written  over  a  part  in  double  notes  (or 
more)  means  that  one  instrument  is  to  play  the 
upper  line  and  another  the  lower.  First  violins 
are  thus  sometimes  subdivided,  and  so  are  other 
stringed  instruments.  The  words  "  A  due  "  are 
used  as  a  direction  for  all  to  play  together  again. 
The  letters  A,  B,  C,  etc.,  often  seen  at  the  tops 
and  bottoms  of  pages,  are  for  the  convenience 
of  conductors  in  rehearsing. 

"  If  you  please,  gentlemen,  let  us  go  back  to 
four  bars  before  the  letter  G,"  or  something  of 
that  kind,  is  a  familiar  remark  at  orchestra  re- 
hearsals. 

47 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

The  reader  will  find  that  in  many  scores 
space  is  saved  by  omitting  from  some  pages  the 
staves  of  those  instruments  which  have  nothing 
on  those  pages.  Usually  when  this  is  done  the 
names  of  the  instruments  which  are  playing  are 
indicated  by  abbreviations  placed  just  above 
the  staves,  as  "  FL,  CL,  Fg.,"  etc.  The  full 
names  of  the  instruments  employed  in  any 
movement  are  given  only  at  the  beginning,  and 
the  reader  of  scores  should  note  how  many 
staves  are  employed.  Sometimes  the  flutes  are 
written  on  two  staves,  sometimes  on  one.  The 
same  is  true  of  the  other  wind-instruments. 
Usually  the  wood-choir  staves  are  bound  to- 
gether by  a  continuous  double  bar  at  the  be- 
ginning of  each  page,  and  sometimes  the  horns 
have  one  double  bar.  The  score-reader  will 
soon  become  familiar  with  the  various  arrange- 
ments. One  who  loves  orchestral  music  and 
wishes  to  understand  how  its  effects  are  pro- 
duced should  study  scores.  Study  your  score 
first  at  home  and  try  to  imagine  how  it  ought 
to  sound.  Then  follow  the  performance  with 
it  and  note  what  combinations  of  instruments 
produce  particular  effects.  After  a  time  you 
will  find  that  your  understanding  of  the  orches- 
tra has  greatly  increased,  and  you  will  get  new 
enjoyment  from  the  performance  of  symphonies 
and  overtures. 


Copyright  by  the  London  Stereoscopic  Co. 

ARTHUR  NIKISCH. 


The  Orchestral   Score 


The  conventional  seating-plan  of  the  orches- 
tra will  help  the  reader  to  familiarize  himself 
with  the  instruments.  In  concerts  the  stringed 
instruments  are  always  placed  at  the  front  of 
the  stage,  with  the  wind-instruments  behind 
them,  in  order  that  the  tone  of  the  strings  may 
come  out  fully  and  without  obstruction.  The 
first  violins  are  always  on  the  left  of  the  audi- 
ence, and  second  violins  on  the  right.  Violas 
are  usually  placed  immediately  behind  the  sec- 
ond violins,  though  some  conductors  put  them 
behind  the  first.  The  'cellos  are  arranged  usu- 
ally on  the  side  opposite  the  violas,  and  double- 
basses  are  placed  at  the  sides  or  the  back,  ac- 
cording to  the  conductor's  idea.  The  wood 
occupies  the  middle  of  the  stage,  and  the  brass 
and  instruments  of  percussion  are  at  the  rear. 
The  diagram  on  the  next  page  shows  the  seating 
plan  of  the  Boston  Symphony  Orchestra. 

Amateurs  will  find  that  they  must  extend 
their  musical  knowledge  a  little,  if  they  desire 
to  read  orchestra  scores.  Persons  who  have 
studied  only  piano  playing  are  nonplussed 
when  they  find  themselves  in  the  presence  of 
transposing  instruments  and  other  clefs  than 
those  known  as  the  treble  and  the  bass.  I  have 
already  briefly  explained  the  peculiarity  of 
what  are  called  transposing  instruments,  but  it 
will  be  well  to  give  the  reader  some  further 

49 


The  Orchestral  Score 


help  in  dealing  with  them  in  reading  scores. 
A  question  which  I  have  frequently  heard  is, 
"  Why  don't  they  make  all  instruments  in  C  ?" 
The  answer  to  this  question  is  that  there  could 
only  be  one  reason  for  doing  so,  namely,  to 
make  it  easy  for  amateurs  to  read  scores. 
There  are  many  more  substantial  reasons  for 
making  instruments  in  various  keys.  For  in- 
stance, brass  instruments  produce  most  easily 
and  with  the  finest  tone  and  richest  sonority 
their  natural  notes-— those  notes  which  are  pro- 
duced without  any  aid  from  valves  or  pistons' 
as  the  notes  of  a  cavalry  bugle.  If  a  composer 
in  writing  a  brilliant  march  in  B  natural,  a 
bright  and  incisive  ke  7  for  the  strings,  wishes 
to  introduce  trumpet ,,  he  can  make  most  effec- 
tive use  of  those  in  B  natural.  But  it  is  not 
possible  always  to  have  clarinets,  trumpets,  and 
horns  in  every  key  ready  for  instant  use,  so 
custom  and  experience  have  induced  musicians 
to  make  a  judicious  selection.  Clarinets  in  A 
and  B  flat  are  now  used  far  more  than  those  in 
C.  As  Gevaert  says :  "  The  choice  among  the 
three  clarinets  is  not  always  made  from  the 
simple  consideration  of  facility;  often  it  is 
guided  by  the  character  of  the  tone  peculiar  to 
each.  The  clarinet  in  C  has  a  timbre  brilliant 
almost  to  rudeness."  He  further  notes  that  it 
is  therefore  used  by  the  classic  composers 

51 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

mostly  in  brilliant  movements  in  the  simple 
diatonic  scales.  The  clarinet  in  B  flat  or  that 
in  A  may  be  chosen  for  reasons  of  a  like  nat- 
ure. The  reader,  however,  will  probably  be 
more  interested  in  knowing  how  he  is  to  read 
clarinet  parts.  If  they  are  in  C,  he  will  have 
no  trouble,  because  there  will  be  no  transposi- 
tion. A  clarinet  in  B  flat  playing  music  writ- 
ten in  C,  sounds  one  tone  lower  than  that  scale. 
Hence  the  key  of  C  is  used  for  a  clarinet  in  B 
flat  only  when  the  violins  are  playing  in  B  flat. 

In  other  words,  every  sound  which  issues 
from  a  B  flat  clarinet  is  one  whole  tone  lower 
than  that  written  in  the  score.  If  you  write  C, 
the  instrument  sounds  B  flat.  If  you  wish  the 
instrument  to  sound  C,  you  must  write  D.  If 
you  wish  it  to  sound  F  sharp,  you  must  write 
G  sharp.  If  you  wish  it  to  sound  E  natural, 
you  must  write  F  sharp  or  G  flat. 

The  composer  has  the  choice  of  two  methods 
of  writing  his  clarinet  part.  He  may  write  al- 
ways without  any  key  signature  and  mark  all 
flats  and  sharps  as  accidentals,  or  he  may  use  a 
key  signature.  Custom  has  sanctioned  the  lat- 
ter method,  which  is  the  more  rational.  I  have 
just  said  that  every  tone  which  issues  from  a 
B  flat  clarinet  is  a  whole  interval  below  the 
written  character.  Therefore,  all  music  for  a 
B  flat  clarinet  must  be  written  one  interval 

53 


The  Orchestral  Score 


higher  than  it  is  intended  to  sound,  and  this, 
the  reader  will  see,  simply  results  in  trans- 
posing a  B  flat  clarinet  part  into  a  key  one  tone 
higher  than  that  of  the  composition.  For  a 
composition  in  C  write  for  B  flat  clarinets  in  the 
key  of  D.  For  one  in  D  write  for  B  flat  clari- 
nets in  E.  For  one  in  E  flat  write  for  B  flat 
clarinets  in  F.  There  is  another  simple  way  of 
looking  at  this  matter.  Clarinets  in  B  flat  have 
already  two  flats  in  their  open  scale.  If  you 
want  them  to  play  in  C,  you  must  contradict 
these  two  flats  by  two  sharps,  and  two  sharps 
are  the  signature  of  the  key  of  D.  Hence, 
write  in  D  for  B  flat  clarinets  to  play  in  C.  In 
reading  a  score  all  that  the  amateur  needs  to 
do  is  to  remember  that  every  note  written  for 
the  B  flat  clarinet  sounds  one  tone  lower  than 
written.  Thus  the  chord  of  C  for  two  flutes, 
two  oboes,  and  two  clarinets  might  be  written 
as  at  A  so  as  to  sound  as  at  B. 


B. 


Tlanti. 

Oboi. 

tJ 

&             -1              -, 

Tfc  =1  ! 

, 

General  result. 

Clarinetti 

f= 

Real  sounds. 

J  —  j  —  1 

V 

in  B  Flat. 
< 

^L=g=J 

-  —  i 

* 

53 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

In  the  case  of  clarinets  in  A  the  same  princi- 
ples apply.  The  clarinet  in  A  sounds  A  when 
C  is  written,  and  it  sounds  the  entire  scale  of 
A  when  the  scale  of  C  is  written.  As  C  is  one 
tone  and  a  half  above  A,  it  follows  that  notes 
for  the  A  clarinet  are  always  written  a  tone  and 
a  half  higher  than  the  sounds  to  be  produced, 
and  the  score-reader  must  conceive  the  A  clari- 
net parts  as  sounding  that  much  lower  than 
they  are  written.  Thus,  to  get  C  out  of  an  A 
clarinet,  you  must  write  E  flat,  and  to  make  an 
A  clarinet  play  in  unison  with  flutes  in  the  key 
of  C,  you  must  write  in  E  flat  for  the  clarinet. 
The  chord  just  written  would  have  to  be  re- 
written thus : 

A.  B. 

Plauti. 


Oboi. 


Clar.  in  A. 


One  of  the  peculiarities  of  orchestra  scores  is 
that  music  for  horns  and  trumpets  is  always 
written  without  any  key  signature — that  is, 
just  as  if  it  were  in  C  major — and  all  the  sharps 
and  flats  are  put  in  as  accidentals.  This  makes 
difficult  reading  at  times  for  an  amateur.  In 

54 


b=gtt  _..J 
I 

r    j 

Heal  sounds. 

ivy  ^j        i 

The  Orchestral  Score 


^g^M^-r^^^5^ 


order  to  aid  the  music-lover  I  give  herewith 
the  written  notes  and  the  corresponding  real 
sounds  of  the  horn  in  F,  which  is  the  most  fre- 
quently used.  The  same  table  will  answer  for 
the  trumpet  in  F. 


Written  Notes. 


Real  Sounds. 


The  rules  of  transposition  given  above  apply 
to  all  music  for  transposing  instruments*  A 
tuba  in  E  flat,  for  instance,  is  one  which  sojB|ids 
E  flat  when  the  composer  writes  C.  Persons 
accustomed  to  sight-reading  with  a  "  movable 
Do  "  have  very  little  trouble  in  the  study  of 
orchestra  scores,  and  I  earnestly  advise  all  who 
wish  to  read  scores  to  study  sight-reading. 

Next  comes  the  matter  of  clefs.  As  I  have 
stated,  it  is  customary  to  write  the  viola  part 
in  the  alto  clef.  When  a  bassoon  or  a  'cello 
runs  up  so  high  that  it  is  inconvenient  to  em- 
ploy the  bass  clef,  the  tenor  clef  is  used,  and  if 
it  goes  still  higher,  the  treble  clef  may  be  in- 
troduced. These  various  clefs  are  troublesome 
to  the  amateur  because  he  is  familiar  only  with 
the  treble  and  bass  clefs.  The  treble  clef  is 

55 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 


known  also  as  the  G  clef ;  because  the  charac- 
ter gg  is  placed  upon  the  second  line  to  in- 
dicate that  the  treble  G  is  there  located.  A 
clef  sign  simply  fixes  the  place  of  some  note, 
and  the  others  are  located  accordingly.  The 
bass  clef  is  also  called  the  F  clef,  because  the 
character  §!:  is  placed  so  as  to  indicate  that  F 
is  on  the  fourth  line.  Now  in  the  alto  and  tenor 
clefs  the  character  //*  is  used,  and  its  purpose 
is  to  locate  the  note  C.  In  the  alto  clef  it  is  on 
the  third  line,  where  B  is  in  the  treble  clef. 
In  the  tenor  clef  it  is  on  the  fourth  line,  where 
D  is  in  the  treble  clef.  The  question  which 
will  arise  in  the  amateur's  mind  is  this:  Which 
C  is  it  that  is  thus  located  ?  The  answer  is 
simple  and  easily  remembered.  It  is  best  ex- 
pressed by  the  following  illustration  : 


Alto  clef. 
C. 


Eeal  sound. 


Pi 


Tenor  clef. 
C. 


Heal  sound. 


Here  are  two  scales,  one  alto  and  one  tenor, 
with  the  real  sounds. 


Alto. 

m 

I 

1      •!      * 

-, 

•m 
SL-*  —W  

-     -m 

* 

. 

=#= 

^ 

Heal  sounds.                                     •/  ~m~ 

i  • 

,  —  **  * 

56 


The  Orchestral  Score 


Tenor. 

[  

-d  —  d  —  • 

• 

>—  , 

gfl       - 

. 

=1 

Heal  sounds. 

It  will  be  seen  from  these  illustrations  tha; 
the  C  located  by  the  clef  sign  in  the  alto  or; 
the  third  line  and  the  tenor  clef  on  the  fourth 
line  is  the  one  situated  on  the  first  leger  line 
below  the  staff  in  the  treble  clef.  Having  this 
fact  in  mind,  the  lover  of  orchestral  music  can 
learn,  with  a  little  practice,  to  read  viola  parts 
and  'cello  or  bassoon  passages  which  run  up 
into  the  tenor  clef.  The  following  illustration 
shows  a  'cello  passage  with  the  middle  measure 
written  on  the  tenor  clef,  and  also  the  same 
passage  written  wholly  on  the  bass  clef: 


In  some  scores  the  music-lover  will  find  the 
three  trombone  parts  written  on  three  clefs, 
alto,  tenor,  and  bass,  while  in  others  they  are 
written  on  the  bass  clef  only.  I  have  already 

5" 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 

noted  that  bass  clarinet  parts  are  written  some- 
times on  the  treble  and  sometimes  on  the  bass 
clef.  The  former  is  always  used  by  French 
composers,  and  the  latter  nearly  always  by 
Germans. 


PART  II 
How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


VI 

General  Principles 

THE  orchestra  is  an  instrument,  and  com 
posers  have  developed  methods  of  writing 
for  it.  The  fundamental  principles  of  these 
methods  constitute  that  branch  of  musical  art 
called  orchestration.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of 
the  present  volume  to  teach  that  branch ;  but 
it  is  entirely  within  its  province  to  point  out 
to  the  reader  how  composers  make  use  of  their 
majestic  and  many-voiced  instrument.  In  com- 
pass and  power  alone  it  surpasses  all  other 
instruments.  The  compass  of  the  modern  or- 
chestra is  enormous.  It  extends  from  grave, 
low  sounds  to  those  of  such  acute  pitch  that  the 
ear  does  not  relish  them  if  uttered  loudly.  The 
extreme  normal  compass  is  shown  by  the  fol- 
lowing illustration : 

8va 


6l 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


Mr.  Corder,  in  his  "  Modern  Orchestra  and 
How  to  Write  for  It,"  gives  this  interesting 
dynamic  scale  :  "  Suppose  the  degrees  of  sound- 
intensity  to  range  from  i  (in///) to  12  (in  fff)\ 
then  one  might  say  roughly  that 

i       2       3     4    5     6       7       8       9      10    it    12 
Violins  have  a  range  of 

from ppp    ..     mf mf    ..       ..      fff 

The  other  strings /// .,     Jftf     .. 

Clarinets  on  high  notes    ..       ..     fpp f(f     ..       .. 

Clarinets     low,    flutes, 

oboes,  andbassoons /// Jfff      

Horns /// Iff    .. 

Trumpets,    trombones, 

and  drums ppp Jff 

Harps ///....   JBT 

I  should  modify  this  by  shifting  the  pia- 
nissimo  of  low  clarinet  tones  back  to  2,  that 
of  drums  forward  to  2,  and  that  of  trumpets 
and  trombones  to  4. 

Now,  if  there  were  nothing  else  to  be  consid- 
ered, a  composer  would  have  to  work  according 
to  some  system  in  using  the  compass  and  force 
of  his  orchestra.  What  is  known  in  regard  to 
the  method  of  doing  so  is  the  result  of  many 
long  years  of  experiment  by  the  early  writers. 
In  a  general  way,  I  may  say  that  composers  in 
writing  a  passage  for  the  entire  orchestra  can 
give  the  melody  to  all  the  soprano  instruments, 
the  alto  to  all  that  have  an  alto  compass,  the 
tenor  to  all  the  tenors,  and  the  bass  to  all  the 

62 


General  Principles 


basses.  For  example — flutes,  clarinets,  oboes, 
and  violins  may  utter  a  melody  in  unison,  while 
the  remaining  instruments  supply  the  accom- 
paniment. But  it  is  rare  that  a  composer 
writes  in  only  four  parts  for  orchestra.  He 
usually  spreads  his  chords  out  to  six  or  eight 
parts,  thus  gaining  in  richness  and  sonority  of 
tone. 

But  compass  and  power  are  not  all  the 
composer  must  consider.  He  has  at  his  com- 
mand a  great  variety  of  tonal  qualities.  We 
have  already  seen  how  the  characteristics  of 
certain  instruments,  singing  as  solo  voices,  are 
peculiarly  suited  to  the  embodiment  of  special 
kinds  of  music.  Now  the  writer  for  orchestra 
must  study  the  result  of  every  possible  combi- 
nation of  all  or  any  of  the  instruments  to  the 
end  that  he  may  produce  just  the  desired  tone, 
and  that  he  may  never  produce  anything  differ- 
ent from  that  which  he  wishes.  The  tonal  tints 
of  a  modern  orchestra  are  the  richest  pigments 
of  the  musician's  palette,  and  he  must  know 
how  to  use  them  either  singly  or  combined,  just 
as  the  painter  knows  how  to  use  his  colors. 
The  simplest  way  in  which  I  can  point  out  the 
peculiarities  of  the  composer's  work  is  by  dis- 
cussing separately  the  uses  of  the  different 
choirs. 

The  principal  requirements  of  good  orches- 

63 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


tration  are  solidity,  balance  of  tone,  contrast, 
and  variety.     Solidity  is  obtained  by  a  proper 
dispersal  of  the  harmony,  so  that  certain  notes 
in  the  chords  do  not  stand  out  too  prominently 
at  the  expense  of  others.     The  composer  must 
not  only  be  a  master  of  harmony,  but  he  must 
have  the  true  harmonic  feeling.     He  must  have 
that  almost  instinctive  grasp  of  the  proportions 
of  chords  which  can  come  only  from  real  mu- 
sical gifts  cultivated  by  long  familiarity  with 
modern  music.     This  feeling  is  not  necessarily 
accompanied  by  restlessness  and  complexity  of 
harmony.     The  harmonic  effect  of  a  simple  dia- 
tonic Bach  chorale   is  infinitely  grander  than 
the  most  intricate  chromatic  convolutions  of  a 
Chabrier  overture.     The  true  harmonic  feeling 
is  one  that  always  produces  artistic  proportions, 
and   these  will   permeate    the  instrumentation 
and  produce  solidity,  provided  the  composer 
has  sufficient  intimacy  with  the  instruments  to 
prevent  him  from  giving  them  the  wrong  notes. 
The  foundation  of  solidity  in  orchestration  is 
good  writing  for  the  strings.     Their  part  of  the 
score  must  always  be  planned  with  complete 
harmonic  skill,  not  only  because  they  are  the 
main  prop  of  the  whole  instrumental  body,  but 
because   the   man  who  cannot  write  well  for 
strings  will  inevitably  fail  in   handling  wood 
and  brass. 

64 


General  Principles 


Solidity  in  tutti  passages  merges  itself  in 
balance  of  tone.  This  depends  also  upon  a 
proper  dispersal  of  the  harmony  and  on  a 
knowledge  of  the  relative  power  of  the  instru- 
ments of  the  three  choirs.  For  instance,  it  is 
not  possible  to  play  wood  as  softly  as  strings. 
Consequently,  in  a  pianissimo  the  composer 
must  know  just  what  wood  instruments  to  use 
and  what  parts  of  the  chord  to  give  them,  lest 
he  overbalance  his  strings.  Solidity  requires 
great  skill  in  writing  the  middle  voices.  If 
they  are  too  strong,  the  orchestration  is 
muddy ;  if  they  are  too  weak,  it  is  thin,  and 
the  orchestra,  as  the  saying  goes,  is  "  all  top 
and  bottom." 

Contrast  is  necessary  in  order  that  monotony 
of  color  may  be  avoided.  It  is  obtained  by  us- 
ing the  three  choirs  of  the  orchestra  separately, 
by  employing  any  subdivision  of  each,  or  using 
simultaneously  subdivisions  of  two,  and  so  on. 
Variety  is  produced  by  mixing  the  tints.  For 
example,  a  passage  played  by  a  flute  alone 
changes  color  when  an  oboe  sings  in  unison 
with  the  flute.  Another  tint  results  when  a 
clarinet  is  added.  It  is  not  necessary  to  pur- 
sue this  topic  further  than  to  say  that  the  com- 
poser must  know  what  tints  will  mix  well  to 
produce  a  new  one. 


VII 

The  Strings 

SINCE  the  foundation  of  good  orchestration 
is  skilful  writing  for  the  strings,  it  is  natural 
to  consider  that  department  first.  The  strings, 
as  we  shall  see,  came  to  their  proper  place  in 
the  orchestra  in  the  works  of  the  operatic  com- 
posers. In  Cavalli's  "  Giasone  "  (1649)  we  find 
vocal  parts  accompanied  in  something  like  the 
Handelian  style  by  two  violins  and  a  bass. 
About  twenty-five  years  later  we  find  the  string 
quartet,  two  violins,  viola,  and  bass,  established 
by  Alessandro  Scarlatti,  founder  of  the  Nea- 
politan school  of  opera.  Since  that  time  the 
strings  have  been  the  foundation  of  the  orches- 
tra, and  although  methods  of  writing  for  them 
have  greatly  changed,  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples remain  the  same. 

The  general  disposition  of  the  strings  may 
be  fairly  expressed  by  the  formula  already 
given,  but  worth  repeating  here :  First  violins 
equal  sopranos,  second  violins  equal  altos,  violas 
equal  tenors,  'cellos  equal  barytones,  and  double- 

66 


The  Strings 

basses  equal  basses.  In  certain  circumstances 
this  disposition  is  altered,  because  the  compass 
of  violas  makes  it  possible  for  them  to  sing 
soprano  music,  though  with  a  distinctly  in- 
dividual tone,  while  the  'cello  can  cover  the 
ordinary  range  of  an  entire  quartet.  The  in- 
dividijality  of  tone  possessed  by  the  various 
stringed  instruments  is  tolerably  well  known, 
except  in  the  case  of  the  viola.  It  is  to  its  beau- 
tiful  quality  of  tone  that  it  owes  its  chief  value. 
Gloomy,  sombre,  and  even  foreboding  in  the 
lower  register,  in  its  upper  range  it  becomes 
mellow,  tender,  pathetic,  and  inexpressibly  win- 
ning. No  wonder  that  Berlioz  selected  it  for 
the  voice  of  the  melancholy  Childe  Harold,  or 
that  Brahms  made  it  play  such  important  parts 
in  his  quartets.  Its  dramatic  power  is  now 
universally  recognized  by  composers,  and  from 
the  position  of  a  misunderstood  and  ignored 
member  of  the  string  quintet,  it  is  rapidly  ad- 
vancing to  the  equally  undesirable  condition  of 
being  severely  overworked. 

It  is  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  many  of 
the  younger  composers  show  a  singular  want 
of  skill  in  using  the  viola,  and  it  is  this  which 
often  upsets  the  balance  of  their  orchestration. 
Perhaps  this  is  due  in  some  measure  to  the 
Brahms  cult.  Brahms's  orchestration  is  not  a 
good  model.  His  middle  parts  are  almost 

6? 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


always  written  too  low  or  too  heavily,  and 
hence  his  instrumentation  is  muddy.  It  de- 
pends upon  what  a  man  is  writing.  If  he  is 
writing  a  symphony  in  the  classic  style,  let 
him  follow  as  closely  as  possible  the  methods 
of  Beethoven.  If  he  wishes  to  be  more  mod- 
ern— and  it  is  natural  that  he  should — let  him 
study  Dvorak,  whose  instrumentation  is  al- 
most perfect.  Tschaikowsky's  is,  too,  but  the 
reader  should  remember  that  most  of  his 
works  are  sombre  in  thought,  and  that  hence 
the  instrumental  style  will  not  be  suitable  to 
light  themes.  Liszt  and  Rubinstein  are  good 
models.  For  thick,  luscious  coloring  there  is 
nothing  better  than  Rubinstein's  "  Antony 
and  Cleopatra "  overture,  and  I  can  recom- 
mend also  a  careful  study  of  Goldmark's  over- 
tures. Wagner,  of  course,  is  full  of  instruc- 
tion, but  a  composer  must  know  a  good  deal 
before  he  can  discriminate  sufficiently  to  get 
any  benefit  from  Wagner.  But  to  return  to 
the  viola. 

The  placing  of  the  viola  part  is  of  the  great- 
est importance  in  the  color  of  the  strings. 
For  instance,  in  the  slow  movement  of  the 
famous  piano  concerto  in  E  flat,  called  the 
"  Emperor,"  Beethoven  mutes  his  violins,  but 
not  his  violas,  and  writes  the  basses  pizzicati, 
thus: 

68 


The  Strings 


Adagio  wn  poco  mosso. 


Viollne  T&  2, 


Viola. 


Basso. 


Con  sordini.'- 


P 

Pizzicato. 


•  !     ||  j     |  J 
j  j  i  «i— *  gj 


3^: 


The  individuality  and  penetrating  quality  of 
the  viola  tone  brings  it  out  with  marked  effect 
in  this  passage,  and  Beethoven  knew  that  so 
well  that  in  the  third  measure  he  kept  his  sec- 
ond violins  down  and  gave  the  violas  the  real 
alto  part,  because  the  harmonic  significance  of 
the  passage  rested  so  largely  upon  the  F  sharp, 
E  sharp,  E,  and  D  sharp.  If  the  second  violin 
and  viola  parts  in  that  passage  were  exchanged, 
the  effect  would  be  altogether  different. 

The  increase  of  skill  in  the  treatment  of  viola 
and  'cello  parts,  but  chiefly  of  the  former,  is 
coincident  with  the  development  of  the  science 
of  orchestration.  Indeed,  it  may  fairly  be  said 
that  first-rate  writing  for  the  strings,  which  is 
the  foundation  of  orchestration,  depends  largely 
upon  the  treatment  of  the  viola  part.  Any  com- 
poser knows  enough  when  writing  for  strings 
to  give  his  melody  to  the  first  violins  and  his 
bass  to  the  basses.  But  the  character  of  his  bar- 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


mony  is  to  be  determined  by  his  middle  voices, 
and  it  is  in  the  treatment  of  these  that  we  see 
growth  in  skill.  Berlioz,  in  his  treatise  on  in- 
strumentation, says  of  the  viola :  "  It  has,  never- 
theless, been  long  neglected,  or  put  to  a  use 
as  unimportant  as  ineffectual — that  of  merely 
doubling,  in  octave,  the  upper  part  of  the  bass. 
There  are  many  causes  that  have  operated  to 
induce  the  unjust  servitude  of  this  noble  instru- 
ment. In  the  first  place,  the  majority  of  the 
composers  of  the  last  century,  rarely  writing 
in  four  real  parts,  scarcely  knew  what  to  do 
with  it;  and  when  they  did  not  readily  find 
some  filling-up  notes  in  the  chords  for  it  to  do, 
they  hastily  wrote  the  fatal  '  col  basso  ' — some- 
times with  so  much  inattention  that  it  produced 
a  doubling  in  the  octave  of  the  basses,  irrecon- 
cilable either  with  the  harmony  or  the  melody 
or  with  both  one  and  the  other.  Moreover,  it 
was  unfortunately  impossible  at  that  time  to 
write  anything  for  the  violas  of  a  prominent- 
character,  requiring  even  ordinary  skill  in  exe-^ 
cution.  Viola-players  were  always  taken  from 
among  the  refuse  of  violinists.  When  a  musi- 
cian found  himself  incapable  of  creditably  filling 
the  place  of  violinist,  he  took  refuge  among  the 
violas." 

Haydn's  symphonic  scores  show  skill  coupled 
with  restraint  in  the  viola  parts.    The  instru- 

70 


The   Strings 

ment  is  never  called  upon  to  play  passages  of 
any  difficulty  except  when  errors  will  be  cov- 
ered up  in  the  general  body  of  tone.  But  in 
his  scores  the  viola  takes  its  correct  place  in  a 
pure  four-part  harmony.  It  is  seldom  that 
Haydn  undertakes  to  give  his  strings  more 
than  four  parts  to  sing,  though  the  reader  will 
perceive  that  as  each  instrument  is  easily 
capable  of  producing  two  notes  at  a  time,  eight 
real  parts  can  be  written  for  a  string  quartet. 
The  'cello  has  few  independent  passages  in 
Haydn's  symphonies.  It  usually  doubles  the 
bass  part.  Mozart,  without  attempting  to  give 
the  viola,  or  the  'cello  difficulties  to  overcome, 
made  wider  use  of  their  special  tone-qualities 
than  did  Haydn,  though  it  must  be  admitted 
that  Mozart's  symphonies  show  a  great  deal  of 
three-part  writing  for  strings.  Gluck,  in  his 
operas,  brought  out  the  dramatic  value  of  the 
lower  register  of  the  viola,  and  Spontini,  in 
"  La  Vestale,"  was  the  first  who  assigned  the 
melody  to  it.  Me*hul,  the  French  opera-writer, 
used  it  so  much  that  Gr6try  exclaimed,"  I'd 
give  a  guinea  to  hear  a  first  string."  Beet- 
hoven, in  the  andante  of  his  fifth  symphony, 
gives  the  melody  in  the  opening  bars  to  the 
violas  and  'cellos  in  unison,  a  very  rich  and 
beautiful  effect. 

In  general  it  may  be  said   that  the  stnng 
7« 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


quintet  did  not  attain  the  full  measure  of  its 
usefulness  in  the  hands  of  the  classical  writers 
till  the  viola  and  the  'cello  had  begun  to  be 
treated  with  freedom  and  independence.  Then 
there  was  no  longer  any  difficulty  in  writing 
a  full  four-part  harmony,  upon  which  depends 
the  solidity  of  the  string  portion  of  the  score. 
The  best  test  of  scoring  for  strings  is  to  con- 
sider whether  it  sounds  full  and  self-sustaining 
when  unsupported  by  any  wind-instruments. 
The  lover  of  orchestral  music  should  give 
especial  attention  to  Beethoven's  scores.  Here 
he  will  find  the  perfection  of  the  classical  style 
of  writing,  which  employed  almost  exclusively 
a  four-part  scheme  and  kept  each  instrument 
in  its  normal  place  except  when  used  as  a  solo 
voice.  With  the  romantic  movement  scoring 
for  strings  began  its  search  after  unusual  tone- 
tints,  and  composers  began  to  learn  that  they 
could  obtain  these  in  two  or  three  ways — by  in 
creasing  the  number  of  voices  in  their  harmony, 
by  taking  advantage  of  the  large  registers  oi 
violas  and  'cellos  and  sometimes  carrying  them 
above  the  violins,  and  by  employing  solo  instru- 
ments among  the  orchestral  mass.  The  beauti- 
ful effect  ot  divided  string  parts  in  a  simple  form 
is  heard  in  the  opening  measures  of  Mendels- 
sohn's "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "  overture, 
but  if  the  reader  desires  to  find  the  extreme 

72 


The  Strings 

modern  style  of  writing  for  numerous  voices 
in  the  strings  he  must  go  to  Wagner.  He,  in- 
deed, is  guilty  of  occasional  abuses  of  the  prac- 
tice. In  the  accompaniment  to  Brangane's  song 
of  warning  in  the  second  act  of  "  Tristan  und 
Isolde  "  he  divides  the  strings  into  fifteen  parts, 
but  I  am  quite  sure  that  no  human  ear  can 
hear  all  of  them.  It  is  seldom  that  more  than 
eight  real  parts  can  be  made  advantageous,  and 
then  chiefly  in  slow  movements. 

It  all  depends  upon  what  the  composer  wishes 
to  accomplish.  If  he  desires  brilliancy  in  an 
animated  movement,  he  will  use  his  first  violins 
in  unison  and  above  the  middle  of  their  regis- 
ter. If  he  wishes  to  get  more  brilliancy,  he  will 
write  them  still  higher  and  double  them  with 
the  second  violins  in  the  octave  below.  If  he 
writes  them  in  the  middle  register  and  doubles 
them  with  the  second  violins,  he  will  get  more 
sonority,  but  less  brilliancy.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  he  desires  richness  of  harmony  coupled 
with  mystery,  or  ethereal  effects,  let  him  divide 
his  strings  into  several  parts.  After  that  it  is 
a  mere  matter  of  register.  If  he  writes  high,  he 
will  get  aerial  delicacy  and  tenderness;  if  he 
writes  low,  he  will  get  pathos  as  well  as  ten- 
derness. No  better  examples  can  be  offered 
than  these  from  "  Lohengrin  "  and  "  Die  Wal- 
kiire:" 

73 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


tWlnoL 


"  *•  ( 


s£ 


JZL_ 


*  i     X          RF 


fc& 


etc. 


1  Cello  Sola 


*  Celli  2. 
2  Celli  3. 


2  Celli  4. 
2  Celli  5. 


*Buii. 


-V r^- 


74 


The  Strings 


etc. 


But,  after  all,  these  effects  are  special,  and  the 
fundamental  principles  of  sound  writing  for  the 
strings  are  best  exemplified  by  the  writings 
of  the  classical  composers.  The  chief  question 
for  the  student  of  music  is :  Which  of  the 
classical  writers  is  the  best  model  ?  This  is  a 
question  not  easily  answered.  Haydn's  earlier 
works  are  not  at  all  to  be  commended,  while  his 
later  compositions  are  full  of  sound  scoring. 
His  quartets  are  not  excelled  as  examples  of 
clear,  well-balanced  writing  for  strings,  but  his 
symphonies  do  not  reveal  fully  the  value  of  the 
viola. 

Specific  instrumental  coloring  began  with 
Mozart,  and  yet  he  is  the  finest  example  of  con- 
tinence and  sobriety  in  orchestration.  His 

75 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


string  parts  are  generally  substantial  and  well 
planned,  but,  nevertheless,  I  should  hardly  ad- 
vise a  beginner  to  study  them.  The  older  com- 
posers are  like  ancient  history  ;  one  must  have 
sufficient  information  to  know  what  to  accept 
and  what  to  reject  in  order  to  read  them  with 
advantage.  It  will  not  profit  any  beginner  in 
instrumentation  to  go  farther  back  than  Beet- 
hoven. The  great  symphonist's  string  plan  is 
always  notable  for  its  breadth,  solidity,  and 
flexibility,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  funda- 
mental work  of  string  writing  which  cannot  be 
learned  from  him.  But  there  is  another  com- 
poser whose  works  are  neglected  by  professors 
and  masters,  and  yet  whose  orchestration  ex- 
cels all  other  in  the  classic  school  in  buoyancy, 
clarity,  suavity,  and  polish,  and  to  the  constant 
study  of  his  scores  I  heartily  commend  all  who 
desire  to  master  the  basis  of  modern  instrumen- 
tation. I  mean  Felix  Mendelssohn  Bartholdy. 
His  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream  "  is  in  itself  an 
epitome  of  the  science  of  instrumentation,  and 
students  and  amateurs  would  do  well  to  give 
many  days  and  nights  to  its  study. 

I  advise  the  student  of  orchestral  effects  to 
examine  particularly  the  overture.  For  light- 
ness and  transparency  nothing  in  the  way  of 
writing  for  the  strings  excels  the  opening  meas- 
ures for  first  and  second  violins  in  four  parts, 

76 


The  Strings 

with  the  addition  at  bar  24  of  a  most  effective 
pizzicato  passage  for  viola.  On  page  5  (Litolff 
score)  the  first  violins,  doubled  an  octave  below 
by  the  second,  carry  the  melody  against  a  tutti 
in  which  the  string  plan  is  notable  for  its  sim- 
plicity and  solidity.  On  page  9  there  is  a 
model  passage  for  strings  with  violas  divided, 
which  is  worthy  of  attention.  A  concert-goer 
should  seek  out  such  passages  in  scores  and 
mark  them.  Then  at  a  performance  of  the  work 
note  the  effect.  By  following  out  such  a  plan 
the  music-lover  will  soon  come  to  perceive  the 
differences  between  the  conservative  scoring  of 
the  early  classical  writers  and  the  venturesome 
and  brilliant  achievements  of  the  moderns. 
From  such  a  clear  and  simple  plan  of  dividing 
strings  as  that  of  Mendelssohn  in  the  overture 
quoted  grew  the  amazing  contrivances  of  mod- 
ern writers,  such  as  the  passage  in  Liszt's  "  Ma- 
zeppa"  for  first  violins  in  three  parts,  the  third 
playing  pizzicato  against  shakes  by  the  other 
two,  second  violins  in  three  parts,  violas  and 
'celli  in  two  each  ;  or  the  thunder-storm  in  Wag- 
ner's "  Das  Rheingold,"  where  the  strings  play 
a  broken  chord  in  twenty  different  ways,  or 
the  superbly  effective  passage  from  Nicode's 
"  Das  Meer,"  which  is  constructed  on  this 
scheme  of  divided  strings  with  contrary  mo- 
tions : 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


Krrt 

Violins. 


SEE^ 


Second 

Violins. 


Violu. 


m- 


•Oelli. 


The  Strings 


first 
Violins. 


^ 


•Celli 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 

The  effect  of  this  remarkable  passage  is  one 
of  the  things  which  go  to  show  what  can  be 
done  in  the  way  of  tone-coloring  with  strings 
alone.  The  vital  points  for  the  reader  to  bear 
in  mind  are  those  which  have  been  brought  out 
as  to  the  distribution  of  the  harmony  in  the 
strings  and  the  necessity  of  writing  for  them  so 
that  they  are  independent.  To  follow  the  de- 
velopment of  skill  in  this  among  the  succes- 
sive composers  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating 
branches  of  musical  study, 

NOTE. — The  tremolo  and  pizzicato  of  bowed  instruments  were 
invented  by  Monteverde  (1568-1643).  The  striking  of  chords  on 
such  instruments  was  introduced  into  orchestral  music  by  Haydn. 
Mutes  were  first  used  in  the  orchestra  by  Gluck  in  his  "  Armide  " 
The  oldest  and  most  familiar  example  of  the  contrast  between 
muted  and  unmuted  strings  is  found  in  the  ' '  Creation "  at  the 
words,  "And  God  said  '  Let  there  be  light.'  "  The  mutes  are 
taken  off  at  "And  there  was  light  "  The  oldest  known  use  of 
harmonics  is  that  in  Philidor's  opera  "Tom  Jones"  (1765).  The 
division  of  violins  into  more  than  two  parts  was  first  employee 
by  Weber.  Beethoven  introduced  divided  violas  in  the  last  move 
ment  of  the  Ninth  Symphony. 


VIII 

The  Wood-Wind 

WHENCE  originated  the  custom  of  calling 
the  collection  of  wooden  wind-instru- 
ments used  in  the  modern  orchestra  "the  wood- 
wind,"  I  am  quite  sure  I  do  not  know.  It  is 
still  more  common  among  musicians  to  speak 
of  them  simply  as  "the  wood,"  notwithstand- 
ing that  the  stringed  instruments  played  with  a 
bow  are  also  made  of  wood.  It  is  a  convenient 
term,  and  its  meaning  being  pretty  generally 
understood,  only  a  purist  in  language  would 
object  to  its  employment.  The  "  wood, '  then, 
in  the  modern  orchestra  consists  of  flutes,  oboes, 
clarinets,  and  bassoons  Of  these  instruments 
the  flute  is  the  oldest,  and  was  the  first  to  be 
used  in  those  indiscriminate  assemblies  of  in- 
struments corresponding  to  orchestras  in  the 
early  days  of  the  art.  The  flute  was  used  in 
ancient  Egypt ,  and,  for  the  matter  of  that,  so 
was  the  oboe,  which  found  its  way  into  the  or- 
chestra at  least  as  far  back  as  Beaujoyeux's 
"  Ballet  Comique  de  la  Reine"  (1581).  Every- 

§i 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


one  knows  a  flute  when  he  sees  it,  and  is  ac- 
quainted with  its  tone,  but  I  have  learned  by 
experience  that  very  few  persons  know  any- 
thing about  the  other  wood  instruments. 

Yet  their  importance  in  the  modern  orches- 
tra cannot  be  overestimated.  Half  the  tone- 
coloring'  of  our  symphonic  works  and  operatic 
scores  depends  upon  skilful  combinations  of 
the  tone-tints  of  wooden  wind-instruments  ei- 
ther with  one  another  or  with  other  members 
of  the  band.  It  is  almost  wholly  in  the  direc- 
tion of  variety  of  combination  that  the  art  of 
writing  for  wood-wind  has  developed.  In  the 
early  days,  before  a  system  of  enriched  instru- 
mentation had  been  developed,  it  was  the  cus- 
tom to  treat  the  wood-wind  parts  without  any 
design  that  affected  the  display  of  their  color- 
ing qualities.  Sebastian  Bach's  scores,  for  in- 
stance, show  a  complete  absorption  of  the  poly- 
phonic style.  He  regarded  his  instruments  as 
so  many  voices,  and  he  treated  them  as  such. 
Each  part  was  written  in  a  manner  essentially 
melodious,  and  related  to  the  other  parts  strictly 
in  contrapuntal  style  The  conception  of  purely 
orchestral  effect  did  not  find  birth  in  the  mind 
of  Bach.  He  was  too  entirely  occupied  with 
the  development  of  the  polyphonic  subject  to 
discover  the  possibilities  of  mixed  tone-tints. 
Furthermore,  he  was  not  sufficiently  imbued 

88 


The  Wood -Wind 


with  a  feeling  for  the  harmonic  style — the 
style  in  which  a  leading  melody  is  supported 
by  a  subsidiary  accompaniment  founded  on 
chords,  as  in  our  songs.  This  is  the  style  on 
which  our  symphony  rests,  but  it  was  foreign 
to  Bach's  genius,  which  was  fundamentally 
fugal. 

Hence,  Bach  did  little  toward  developing  the 
combining  powers  of  the  wood-wind.  As  one 
writer  has  excellently  said  :  "  He  preferred  to 
employ  wind-instruments  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
larging his  original  design,  rather  than  that  of 
strengthening  or  decorating  it.  When  he  added 
a  flute  or  an  oboe  to  his  score,  he  loved  not  only 
to  make  it  obbligato,  but  to  write  it  in  such  wise 
that  it  should  form  a  new  real  part.  Hence, 
even  in  his  regularly  constructed  arias,  the 
voice  is  scarcely  so  much  accompanied  by  the 
various  instruments  employed  as  made  to  sing 
in  concert  with  them,  the  score  containing  as 
many  real  parts  as  there  are  solo  voices  or  in- 
struments introduced  into  it."  Dr.  Parry,  in 
his  "  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music,"  in  speak- 
ing of  the  difference  between  instrumentation 
of  this  kind  and  that  of  a  later  date,  says: 
"  In  the  instrumentation  of  the  great  masters  of 
the  earlier  generation,  the  tone-qualities  seem 
to  be  divided  from  one  another  by  innate  repul- 
sion ;  but  in  the  harmonic  style  they  seem  to 

83 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


melt  into  one  another  insensibly,  and  to  become 
part  of  a  composite  mass  of  harmony  whose 
shades  are  constantly  shifting  and  varying." 

Handel's  wood-wind  is  employed  with 
greater  variety  than  Bach's.  This  was  to  be  ex- 
pected of  a  composer  who,  in  the  first  place, 
was  in  closer  touch  with  the  public,  and  hence 
more  likely  to  recognize  and  yield  to  the  de- 
mand for  effects.  In  the  second  place,  Handel, 
not  being  secluded  as  Bach  was,  stood  more 
forward  in  the  march  of  musical  evolution. 
He  was  an  opera-writer,  and  this  brought  him 
into  immediate  contact  with  the  harmonic  style 
as  practised  by  the  Italian  opera-writers.  He 
learned  from  some  of  them,  too,  the  use  of 
grandiose  mass  effects.  The  application  of 
these  ideas  to  his  instrumentation  produced 
results  far  different  from  any  conceived  by  the 
introspective  and  historically  solitary  genius  of 
the  great  Bach.  Handel  used  a  larger  orches- 
tra than  Bach,  yet  did  many  things  in  the  same 
way.  For  example,  he  often  wrote  for  his 
instruments  in  the  polyphonic  style,  but  in  the 
accompaniments  to  his  great  choruses  he  wrote 
for  several  oboes  in  unison  with  the  violins  and 
a  body  of  bassoons  in  unison  with  the  basses. 
At  other  times  he  treated  his  wood-wind  parts 
as  figured  ornamentation  of  the  more  simple 
string  parts,  and  again  he  employed  the  strings 

84 


The  Wood -Wind 


and  wind  alternately,  as  modern  composers  do 
so  frequently.  Flutes  he  rarely  used  except  as 
solo  instruments,  as  in  the  "  Sweet  Bird  "  aria, 
and  clarinets  he  did  not  have.  But  the  idea  of 
using  some  of  the  wind-instruments,  as  horns 
and  trumpets,  in  pairs,  had  come  into  existence 
in  Handel's  time,  and  it  was  not  long  before 
this  plan  was  applied  also  to  the  wood-wind. 

Its  employment  naturally  began  with  the 
recognition  of  the  inability  of  the  wood-wind 
to  play  such  intricate  passages  as  strings  could, 
and  also  of  their  power  to  sustain  the  long  notes 
of  supporting  chords.  These  features  of  wood- 
wind writing  existed  even  in  the  scores  of  Scar- 
latti and  Lulli,  but  it  was  not  until  the  harmonic 
style  began  to  be  clearly  distinguished  from 
the  polyphonic  in  orchestral  works  that  they 
became  generally  recognized.  In  the  scores  of 
Emmanuel  Bach,  the  son  of  Sebastian,  we  begin 
to  find  wood- wind  treated  in  the  pure  classic 
style.  The  chords,  to  be  sure,  are  very  thin, 
and  the  composer  shows  a  "'prentice  hand"  at 
the  dovetailing  of  his  wind  parts  together  so 
as  to  make  a  firm  structure,  but  the  skeleton  of 
the  modern  form  is  there. 

Haydn's  scoring  shows  a  curious  combina- 
tion of  Handelian  ideas  with  later  develop- 
ments. The  Handelian  plan  of  strengthening 
string  parts  with  wind  parts  in  unison  seems  to 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


have  taken  some  hold  of  Haydn,  for  he  rarely 
writes  unsupported  wood-wind  passages  in  his 
symphonies.  He  keeps  his  first  violins  singing 
the  melody  most  of  the  time,  and  gets  variety 
by  doubling  them,  now  with  flutes,  now  with 
oboes,  again  with  bassoons.  A  wind  solo  is 
very  rare.  He  shows  similar  weakness  in  writ- 
ing for  the  wood-wind  in  its  internal  relations. 
His  clarinet  parts  usually  double  those  of  the 
oboes  or  the  flutes.  There  is  a  great  deal  of 
octave  writing,  and  he  seldom  gets  more  than 
three  real  parts  in  his  wood-wind.  It  is  only 
because  he  so  constantly  employs  the  string 
quartet  that  his  symphonic  scores  do  not 
sound  thin.  For  example,  in  a  passage  for 
wood-wind  and  strings  near  the  beginning  of 
the  familiar  symphony  in  D,  the  first  flute,  ex- 
cept in  one  chord,  doubles  the  second  violin  at 
the  octave  above,  while  the  second  flute  sup- 
ports the  principal  notes  of  the  melody,  played 
by  the  first  violins,  at  the  octave  below.  The 
oboes  in  unison  double  the  violas  at  the  upper 
octave.  The  two  clarinets  in  unison  double  the 
first  flute  an  octave  below.  The  bassoons  and 
basses  play  in  unison.  Toward  the  end  of  the 
last  movement  there  is  a  passage  in  which  the 
wind  plays  sustained  chords,  and  in  this  the 
wood  is  treated  in  a  more  open  style  of  har- 
mony.  Haydn  learned  much  from  Mozart, 

86 


HAYDN. 


The  Wood -Wind 


however,  and  in  the  "  Creation "  and  "  Sea- 
sons," his  writing  for  wood-wind  shows  much 
greater  freedom,  and  a  decidedly  more  definite 
attempt  to  get  at  the  tonal  characteristics  of 
the  instruments. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  Mozart's 
orchestration  shows  a  large  improvement  on 
Haydn's,  and  it  is,  perhaps,  easier  for  the  ama- 
teur to  discern  this  in  his  treatment  of  the 
wood-wind  than  anywhere  else.  Passages  con- 
trasting the  whole  wood  choir  with  the  strings 
are  more  numerous,  and  the  combinations  of 
wood  with  strings  show  more  definite  attempts 
to  put  new  tints  upon  the  symphonic  canvas. 
One  finds,  for  instance,  in  the  G  minor  sym- 
phony the  flute  tone  contrasted  with  the  oboe, 
combinations  of  flute  and  oboe  contrasted  with 
bassoon,  combinations  of  flutes,  bassoon,  and 
strings,  and  other  effects  which  give  life  and 
variety  to  the  instrumental  coloring. 

Nevertheless,  a  conventional  manner  of  treat- 
ing the  wood-wind  found  its  way  into  general 
use,  and  it  prevailed  until  the  romanticists,  in 
reaching  out  for  new  forms  and  manners  of  ex- 
pression, revolutionized  the  system  of  scoring. 
The  old-fashioned  way  was  to  employ  the  four 
pairs  of  wood-wind  instruments  always  in  thirds 
and  sixths.  The  flutes  almost  always  took  the 
melody  and  the  next  interval  below  it.  The 

87 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


oboes  either  doubled  the  flutes  in  the  octave 
below,  or  the  first  oboe  doubled  the  second 
flute,  and  the  second  oboe  took  the  next  lower 
degree  of  the  chord.  The  clarinets  filled  in  the 
middle  voices,  and  the  bassoons  played  the  bass, 
most  frequently  in  octaves.  The  harmony  was 
close,  and  the  texture  of  this  instrumentation 
was  always  solid,  and,  it  must  be  admitted,  at 
times  muddy.  This  manner  of  writing  is  found 
in  all  Beethoven's  earlier  works.  For  example, 
here  is  the  opening  of  the  first  symphony,  the 
horns  and  strings  (pizzicati)  also  appearing  in 
the  score : 


Plauti. 


Gbol 


Clarinetti. 


Fagotti. 


That  is  perfectly  adapted  to  its  purpose ;  but 
the  chances  are  that  a  composer  of  to-day 
would  have  used  three  flutes,  three  clarinets, 
and  three  bassoons,  and  would  have  thickened 
the  harmony  by  raising  the  clarinet  voices  and 

88 


r 


~-^^ 


^m 


J£2-      -*.     +-         \ 


The  Wood -Wind 


bringing  the  first  bassoon  up  nearer  the  mid- 
dle, thus: 


f 

£=*?=*= 

=S= 

-f-'^-C  -1   <= 

IP 

P 

etc. 

l_Jr-  J  ,  . 

&('  j.^3. 

&•  (;--  t-r—  _^«;  —  - 

z*i_ 

Fbtuti. 


OboL 


Clir. 


Brahms  followed  Beethoven's  early  style  of 
scoring  for  wood,  which,  it  must  always  be 
recollected,  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  art. 
An  example  from  Brahms's  C  minor  symphony 
will  show  the  modern  writer's  adoption  of  his 
predecessor's  plan : 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


The  modern  style  of  writing  for  the  wood- 
wind choir  introduces  more  passages  in  con- 
trary  motion  and  a  more  dispersed  harmony. 
The  close  chords  of  the  classicists  cannot  be  ex- 
celled for  their  purpose,  but  the  romanticists  had 
new  aims  and  they  took  advantage  not  only  of 
unusual  tone-tints  but  of  the  increased  richness 
brought  about  by  using  more  voices  and  extend- 
ing their  chords.  Beethoven's  symphonies  show 
a  rapid  progress  toward  the  modern  flexibility 
of  methods  in  writing  for  wood-wind.  For  in- 
stance, note  the  lovely  effect  of  this  piece  of 
contrary  motion  in  the  Fifth  Symphony: 


Flauti. 


Oboi. 


Clarinetti. 
BFltt. 


As  we  advance  through  the  pages  of  the 
master's  symphonies  we  find  a  constantly  in- 
creasing flexibility  in  the  treatment  of  the  wood, 
until  in  the  Ninth  we  meet  with  passages  con- 
taining effects  which,  when  closely  examined, 
seem  to  be  almost  amazingly  modern.  Of 

90 


The  Wood-Wind 


course,  one  never  finds  in  Beethoven's  scores 
any  attempt  to  make  an  effect  for  its  own  sake. 
The  master  symphonist  was  altogether  too 
busy  in  giving  his  thought  expression  to  think 
of  little  tricks  of  instrumental  dress.  Because  of 
his  continence  in  this  matter  some  modern  com- 
mentators have  expressed  the  belief  that  these 
symphonies  would  be  improved  if  re-orches- 
trated according  to  contemporaneous  methods. 
I  presume  that  someone  will  eventually  try 
the  experiment,  and  then  it  will  be  discovered 
that  Beethoven's  instrumentation  was  perfectly 
adapted  to  his  musical  ideas.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  good  deal  of  our  modern  music  would 
stand  revealed  in  its  naked  thinness  if  it  were  re- 
orchestrated  in  the  austere  style  of  Beethoven 
or  with  the  sunny  simplicity  of  the  Mozartian 
manner.  The  extreme  development  of  wood-, 
wind  writing  as  known  in  our  day  is  to  be  found 
in  the  scores  of  Wagner.  No  one  has  surpassed 
his  treatment  of  the  wood  in  his  earlier  dramas, 
and  the  reader  may  accept  Elsas  entrance  to 
the  cathedral  in  Act  II.  of  "  Lohengrin,"  and  the 
exit  of  Elizabeth  in  Act  III.  of  "  Tannhauser," 
as  complete  expositions  of  writing  for  the  un- 
supported wood-wind.  In  the  introduction  to 
the  third  act  of  "  Lohengrin  "  appears  this  pas- 
sage, which  shows  how  Wagner  could  use  his 
wood  in  relation  to  the  rest  of  his  orchestra : 

91 


1, 

Flnti  3, 
3 


Obe  1. 


Obe  2  &  3. 


Cl«r.  1. 

in  A. 


Clar.  2  &  3 
in  A. 


4  Horns 
inO. 


1, 

Fagotti  2, 
3. 


1st  Violin. 


2d  Violin. 


Viol*. 


Cello. 


Basso.    gg 


^ 


pizz. 


SE§ 


v  w 


r-r- 


-x—     x      J 


f^= 


X  -  SI 


92 


1, 

Fluti  3, 
3. 


OtMl. 


Obt  2  fc  3. 


Clur.  1. 
in  A. 


CUr.  3*3. 


4  Horn* 
inO. 


Fagotti  3,' 
3. 


lit  Violin. 


3d  Violin. 


Viola. 


Cillo. 


Bute. 


\ 


!-    -*  J. 


J     r       r — J    |   j    * 


X  X 


m 


m 


93 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


The  reader  will  at  once  see  the  open  style  in 
which  the  wood-wind  parts  are  constructed. 
The  horns  serve  to  enrich  and  deepen  the  har- 
mony, while  the  strings  are  used  chiefly  for  a 
rhythmic  effect.  Weber's  scoring  is  full  of  ad- 
mirable writing  for  the  wood-wind,  and  for 
other  fine  examples  I  can  once  more  refer  the 
reader  to  Mendelssohn's  "  Midsummer  Night's 
Dream  "  music. 

The  immense  variety  of  coloring  to  be  ob- 
tained from  the  wood  is  due  largely  to  its 
power  of  producing  independent  harmony. 
Owing  to  the  large  register  of  the  clarinets, 
they  can  be  used  as  either  soprano  or  low 
contralto  instruments,  while  the  wide  scale  of 
the  bassoons  permits  them  to  be  treated  as 
basses,  barytones,  or  tenors.  It  thus  becomes 
possible  to  write  in  full  and  euphonious  four- 
part  harmony  for  two  flutes  and  two  clarinets, 
two  oboes  and  two  clarinets,  two  flutes  and  two 
bassoons,  two  oboes  and  two  bassoons,  or  two 
clarinets  and  two  bassoons.  Each  of  these 
combinations  differs  in  color  from  the  others. 
If  now  a  bass  clarinet  be  added,  it  becomes 
possible  to  give  it  the  fundamental  bass  and 
to  use  the  bassoons  for  middle  voices.  The 
addition  of  an  English  horn  gives  further  possi- 
bilities. If  the  number  of  flutes,  clarinets,  and 
bassoons  be  increased  to  three  of  each,  the 

94 


The  Wood -Wind 


composer  has  still  more  combinations.  And 
when  it  is  recollected  that  every  one  of  these 
wind-instruments  can  be  used  as  a  solo  voice, 
the  range  of  variety  becomes  wider  yet.  But 
the  reader  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the  ad- 
dition of  horns  and  strings  still  further  alters 
the  tonal  colors.  In  short,  the  wood-wind  pro- 
vides the  most  useful  means  of  giving  variety 
of  color  to  an  orchestral  score,  and  all  modern 
writing  abounds  in  ingenious,  surprising,  and 
expressive  effects  made  with  the  wood  choir. 
Yet  when  the  thunder  of  an  orchestral  tutti  is 
required,  there  is  no  better  way  to  write  for 
wood  than  that  of  Beethoven's  symphonies. 

I  have  said  nothing  yet  in  this  chapter  about 
the  piccolo  and  the  contra-fagotto.  The  piccolo 
is  a  much  misused  instrument,  but  it  is  capable 
of  admirable  effects,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
storm  in  Beethoven's  "  Pastoral "  symphony, 
the  magic-fire  music  in  "  Die  Walkiire,"  or  the 
"  Dance  of  the  Automatons  "  in  Delibes's  "  Syl- 
via" ballet.  The  double-bassoon,  or  contra- 
fagotto,  allows  the  composer  to  carry  the  bass  of 
his  wood-wind  choir  an  octave  lower  than  the 
compass  of  the  bassoon.  The  instrument  is 
coarse  in  tone  and  not  capable  of  performing 
rapid  passages,  but  it  has  its  value,  as  is  shown 
6y  its  employment  in  the  last  movement  of 
Beethoven's  Ninth  Symphony  or  Brahms's 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


"  Chorale  St.  Anthony  "  variations.  A  double- 
bass  clarinet  has  been  invented  by  a  New  York 
musician.  I  have  not  heard  this  instrument, 
but  am  told  by  competent  judges  that  it  is  of 
high  value.  It  carries  the  bass  an  octave  lower 
than  the  bass  clarinet,  and  is  capable  of  great 
agility  and  of  the  finest  gradations  of  tone. 
Richard  Strauss,  Weingartner,  and  other  Ger- 
man musicians  have  promised  to  introduce  it 
in  future  scores,  and  I  dare  say  it  will  become  a 
fixture  in  the  orchestra.  The  great  value  of  the 
clarinet  color  to  the  orchestra  cannot  be  over- 
estimated, and  any  increase  in  its  range  and  in- 
tensity will  surely  be  welcomed  by  composers. 


IX 

The  Brass  and  the  "Battery" 

THE  brass  choir  may  be  dismissed  with 
comparative  brevity,  because  methods  of 
writing  for  it  have  changed  on  lines  similar 
to  those  followed  by  the  wood.  In  the  early 
scores  one  finds  that  the  trumpets  were  the  most 
noticeable  members  of  the  brass,  but  in  later 
music  the  horns  are  far  and  away  the  most  im- 
portant. It  is  possible  to  get  almost  any  amount 
of  richness,  solidity,  and  variety  of  color  out 
of  an  orchestra  composed  of  the  wood-wind, 
four  horns,  and  strings ;  but  if  two  trumpets 
and  three  trombones  be  substituted  for  the 
horns,  the  ingenuity  of  the  composer  will  be 
severely  taxed  to  prevent  his  work  from  sound- 
ing coarse  in  forte  passages.  One  reason  for 
this  is  that,  when  played  moderato,  horns  blend 
perfectly  with  either  wood  or  strings,  and  when 
played  forte  they  become  brassy  in  tone  and  can 
be  made  to  give  a  good  imitation  of  trombones. 
Let  the  reader  note,  when  he  again  hears  the 
prelude  to  the  third  act  of  "  Lohengrin,"  that 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


the  brass  theme  is  played  the  first  time  by  the 
horns,  which  sound  like  trombones  robbed  of 
their  roughness.  The  second  time  the  theme  is 
heard  the  trombones  enter  and  the  tone  at  once 
becomes  brassy.  In  fact,  it  may  be  said  at  once 
that  the  brassy  quality  of  brass  instruments 
comes  out  fully  only  when  the  tone  is  forced. 
When  it  sings  moderato  the  brass  choir  is  capa- 
ble of  the  most  beautiful  effects  of  rich,  organ- 
like  sonority.  One  has  only  to  recall  as  a  per- 
fect example  of  this  the  prayer  in  the  first  act 
of  "  Lohengrin,"  one  of  the  most  effective  of  all 
modern  pieces  of  writing  for  brass.  When 
however,  immense  sonority  is  required,  the  for- 
tissimo of  the  brass  choir  is  the  composer's 
heavy  gun. 

The  treatment  of  the  trumpet  parts  in  the 
works  of  Bach  and  Handel  will  be  found  to 
differ  greatly  from  the  modern  manner  of  writ- 
ing for  them.  In  the  first  place,  the  instruments 
employed  by  those  composers  must  have  had 
mouth-pieces  of  a  different  kind  from  those  of 
to-day,  or  else  the  players  knew  some  things 
which  ours  do  not.  Both  Bach  and  Handel 
wrote  passages  for  the  trumpet  so  high  that 
contemporaneous  musicians  cannot  perform 
them.  But  that  is  a  fact  of  less  importance  to 
the  reader  of  the  present  book  than  the  general 
principle  of  the  scoring.  The  old  composers, 

98 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery 


then,  wrote  for  trumpets  in  pairs  and  made 
them  do  a  great  deal  of  their  work  in  octaves, 
except  in  some  of  the  earliest  scores,  in  which 
three  trumpets  were  sometimes  employed. 
Even  Monteverde  wrote  for  one  clarino(a  small 
trumpet),  three  trombe  (the  ordinary  trumpet), 
and  four  tromboni.  Handel  used  three  trum- 
pets in  the  "  Dettingen  Te  Deum,"  and  Bach  in 
the  "  Lobe  den  Herrn." 

Haydn  used  the  trumpets,  horns,  and  drums 
in  the  primitive  style.  The  parts  were  written 
either  in  octaves  or  in  sixths  —  occasionally 
in  thirds — and  on  tonic  and  dominant  chords, 
worked  with  the  drums  chiefly  to  enforce  the 
tutti.  Passages  such  as  the  following  abound 
in  Haydn's  symphonies : 


Horns  in  D. 


Trumpets  in  D. 


TympanL 


/gu    ^i    »i  *i  I  ^-i— -+       I  "^1-^=4 
KU  J  I    ~*"^~S^ 

J      •€*-•*-+   -S* 

I 1,  J       I       I       1, 


IsA    -    and 


fit! 


P 


It  seems  hardly  possible  to  contrive  a  more 
hollow  plan  of  writing  than  that  which  gives 
to  five  instruments  only  three  notes  of  a  chord 
(though  the  horn  parts  actually  sound  an  octave 
lower),  yet  it  is  a  method  which  survived  till 

M 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


Beethoven's  time,  and,  so  far  as  the  trumpets 
go,  even  the  mighty  Ludwig  made  no  improve- 
ment upon  it.  Mozart's  scores  show  a  very 
slight  advance  upon  Haydn's.  He  more  fre- 
quently gives  three  notes  of  the  chord  to  the 
brass  instruments,  but  he  uses  them  in  the 
same  general  way.  Of  course,  these  old  com- 
posers were  much  restricted  by  the  mechanical 
limitations  of  their  instruments.  They  had 
the  old  keyless  horns  and  trumpets,  and  not 
having  the  whole  scale  at  their  command,  they 
had  to  write  with  much  restraint.  In  the  horn 
parts  they  were  further  compelled  to  remember 
that  certain  notes  could  be  produced  only  in 
the  "stopped  "  form,  that  is,  by  the  use  of  one 
hand  inserted  in  the  bell  of  the  instrument. 
These  stopped  notes  differed  wholly  in  quality 
from  the  open  tones.  This  trouble  lasted  until 
the  F  valve  horn  was  perfected  within  the 
present  century.  Before  that,  however,  com- 
posers had  begun  to  endeavor  to  give  more 
variety  to  the  horn  parts.  Weber  and  Beet- 
hoven both  made  admirable  use  of  this,  the 
most  noble  and  expressive  of  the  brass  instru- 
ments, and  the  scores  of  Rossini  also  contain 
some  excellent  specimens  of  horn  writing. 
Rossini,  indeed,  who  was  the  son  of  a  horn- 
player,  may  be  said  to  have  introduced  a  new 
rtyle  of  writing  for  the  instrument,  treating  it 

100 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery" 

with  great  brilliancy  as  a  florid  solo  singer. 
But  the  substantial  principles  of  horn  writing, 
as  practised  in  the  modern  orchestra,  began 
with  Mozart,  who  used  the  instrument  with 
much  skill,  especially  in  those  scores  which  do 
not  call  for  trumpets.  Beethoven  made  more 
exacting  demands  upon  the  instrument,  and 
there  is  no  more  effective  horn  passage  in  exist- 
ence than  the  famous  trio  of  the  scherzo  in  the 
"  Eroica  "  symphony.  The  passage  is  too  long 
for  quotation  here,  but  is,  of  course,  familiar  to 
every  music-lover.  As  an  example  of  perfect 
writing  for  a  solo  horn  nothing  in  symphonic 
music  is  better  than  the  opening  of  the  slow 
movement  of  Tschaikowsky's  fifth  symphony. 

The  methods  of  employing  horns  are  so  nu- 
merous that  it  is  not  practicable  to  recount  all 
of  them.  It  may  be  said,  however,  that  in  small 
scores,  which  call  for  wood-wind,  two  horns 
and  strings,  these  instruments  are  often  used 
to  form  chords  with  either  the  wind  or  the 
strings.  Two  horns  and  two  bassoons  make  very 
effective  harmony;  in  fact,  when  the  four  in- 
struments are  played  moderate  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  distinguish  the  bassoons  from  the 
horns.  The  latter  also  blend  excellently  with 
clarinets  or  the  low  tones  of  flutes.  In  writing 
for  four  horns  some  composers  give  the  two 
upper  notes  of  the  chord  to  the  first  and  second 

101 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 

and  the  two  lower  to  the  third  and  fourth,  while 
others  dovetail  the  parts  by  giving  the  first  and 
third  notes  to  the  first  and  second  horns.  Of 
course,  either  method  is  subject  to  variation,  as 
in  a  passage  like  this : 


Horns  in  F. 


3 


Here  the  dovetailing  of  parts  is  carried  through- 
out, yet  in  the  third  bar  the  third  and  fourth 
horns  double  the  fundamental  bass  in  octaves. 

The  trombone  is  a  very  familiar  instrument, 
and  little  needs  to  be  added  to  what  has  already 
been  said  about  it.  There  are  slide  and  valve 
trombones.  The  former  is  the  kind  always  em- 
ployed in  symphonic  orchestras.  The  reader 
will  recognize  the  instrument  by  the  action  of 
the  player's  arm  in  moving  the  slide  in  and  out. 
This  shortening  and  lengthening  of  the  tube  of 
the  instrument  changes  its  key  and  thus  enables 
the  player  to  produce  in  open  tones  every  note 
of  the  chromatic  scale.  The  valve  trombone  is 
played  with  keys  like  those  of  a  cornet.  It  is 
less  brilliant  and  sonorous  than  the  slide  instru- 
ment. Trombones  were  employed  as  far  back 
as  Monteverde's  "  Orfeo,"  early  in  the  seven- 

102 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery" 

teenth  ce  itury,  but  there  seems  to  have  been 
no  definit  •  use  of  them  till  the  time  of  Gluck. 
He  thorou  ^hly  appreciated  the  majestic  dignity 
of  dramati :  utterance  of  which  the  trombone 
was  capable  and  he  used  it  with  eloquent  effect. 
Furthermore,  he  established  for  all  time  the 
custom  of  wri  ing  for  trombones  in  three  parts. 
After  him,  as  Gevaert  pertinently  notes,  the 
three  trombones  became  a  distinctive  feature  of 
dramatic  scores,  for  the  classic  symphony  found 
no  use  for  their  immense  sonority  till  Beet- 
hoven called  it  +.o  his  aid  in  voicing  the  tri- 
umphant emotions  of  the  finale  of  the  Fifth 
Symphony.  Nev  srtheless,  the  trombone  is  not 
necessarily  an  instrument  to  be  used  only  in 
producing  great  volumes  of  tone.  A  beautiful 
example  of  its  value  in  rich  and  subdued  har- 
mony, in  company  with  other  instruments,  is  to 
be  found  in  the  accompaniment  to  Sar astro  s 
grand  air  in  Mozait's  "  Magic  Flute,"  as  is 
shown  on  the  following  page. 

The  three  trombones,  as  in  this  example, 
usually  play  three-note  chords,  except  when 
required  to  play  in  unison.  The  tuba  fills  out 
the  harmony  by  doubling  the  bass  part  in  the 
lower  octave,  or  forming  a  four-part  chord  with 
the  three  trombones.  There  are  tubas  in  sev- 
eral keys,  but  it  is  customary  to  write  for  the 
instrument  without  making  any  transposition, 

103 


J&sttt  Sons. 

(Tenor  Clarinets 

inF.) 


Fagotti. 


Trombones. 


Violu  Divisi. 


Sarattro. 


'Celli. 


Basset  Horns. 

Tenor  Clarinets 

inF.) 


Fagotti. 


Trombone. 


Violas  divisi. 


Sarutro. 


'Celli. 


^ 

-s>- 


^ 


s£~i — r 


I      -      sis         und  O     -     si 


ris 


schen-ket    der  \Veis  -  heit  Geist    dem  neu  -  en 


104 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery" 

There  is  a  fine  tuba  solo,  in  unison  with  the 
double-basses,  at  the  opening  of  Wagner's  "  Eine 
Faust "  overture,  and  frequent  examples  of  har- 
mony for  three  trombones  and  tuba  are  to  be 
found  in  the  works  of  the  Bayreuth  master.  In 
writing  for  the  full  brass  choir  alone  a  com- 
poser has  the  choice  of  several  methods.  He 
may  give  the  melody  to  a  trumpet  or  cornet, 
and  use  the  other  instruments  for  the  harmony, 
or  he  may  let  a  horn  (or  two  horns  in  unison) 
take  the  melody.  If  he  desires  much  force,  he 
may  give  the  melody  to  a  trumpet  and  double 
it  with  a  trombone.  The  natural  method,  how- 
ever, is  to  let  a  trumpet,  which  is  a  good  soprano 
voice,  sing  the  air,  while  the  other  trumpet 
and  three  of  the  horns  take  the  middle  voices, 
the  fourth  horn  and  first  and  second  trombones 
the  lower  middle  voices,  the  third  trombone 
and  tuba  the  bass.  Similar  methods  are  em- 
ployed where  the  brass  joins  with  the  rest  of 
the  orchestra  in  the  thunder  of  a  tutti  fortissimo. 
The  reader  will  find  a  most  admirable  example 
of  this  style  of  writing  in  the  climax  of  the  pre- 
lude to  "  Lohengrin." 

It  should  be  noted  that  the  brass  choir  offers 
certain  possibilities  of  color  both  within  itself 
and  in  combination  with  other  instruments. 
Three  trumpets  are  capable  of  independent 
harmony,  as  are  four  horns,  and  three  trom- 

105 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


bones.  Again,  owing  to  the  deep  range  of  the 
horn,  trumpets  and  horns  may  form  a  separate 
choir,  or  either  trumpets  or  horns  may  be  united 
with  trombones.  The  entire  brass  band  may  be 
used  with  the  wood,  the  strings  being  silent,  or 
with  the  strings  and  without  wood.  Part  of 
the  brass  may  be  used  with  part  of  the  wood, 
as  in  the  opening  of  the  "  Tannhauser  "  over- 
ture, where  two  clarinets,  two  horns,  and  two 
bassoons  produce  a  complete  and  satisfying 
harmony.  Weird  and  bizarre  effects  can  be 
produced  by  combinations  of  contrasting  tones. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  better  example  than  this  re- 
markable use  of  flutes  and  trombones  in  Ber- 
lioz's "  Requiem  " : 


3  Flutes. 


8  Tenor 

Trombones. 


|     .1  _  1     , 


1 06 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery 


These  notes  had  never  been  written  for  trom- 
bones before,  and  the  composer,  whose  knowl- 
edge of  the  capacities  of  instruments  has  never 
been  excelled,  wrote  in  the  margin  of  the  score: 
"  These  notes  are  in  the  instruments  and  the 
players  must  get  them  out." 

As  I  have  already  noted,  the  operatic  com- 
posers, in  their  search  after  dramatic  effects, 
invented  many  of  the  instrumental  combinations 
afterward  adopted  by  the  composers  of  purely 
orchestral  music.  The  scores  of  Mozart  and 
Gluck,  for  instance,  are  rich  in  passages  which 
make  use  of  the  harmony  of  trombones,  and 
the  reader  who  wishes  to  study  such  effects  in 
their  early  form  should  note  the  accompani- 
ment to  the  words  of  the  Commendatore  in  the 
cemetery  scene  of  "  Don  Giovanni,"  to  the  solo 
and  chorus,  "  Dieu  puissant,"  Act  I.,  scene  3, 
of  Gluck's  "  Alceste,"  the  air  "  Divinit6s  du 
styx  "  in  the  same  work,  and  the  chorus  "  Ven- 
geons  et  la  nature,"  Act  II.,  scene  4,  of  "  Iph- 
igenie  en  Tauride." 

All  that  the  moderns  can  do  with  trombone 
harmonies  they  learned  from  Gluck,  and  by 
applying  his  use  of  dispersed  chords  to  the 
whole  brass  choir  they  have  produced  new  and 
noble  orchestral  colors.  Where  did  Wagner 
learn  such  things  as  this,  if  not  from  Mozart 
and  Gluck? 

107 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


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die     so   scbon  and 


Two  Trumpets 

A        i               ^|        i 

—  ~  1 

in  E  Natural. 

3     p      «r  T 

^ 

3  Trombones. 

^JL_^      -j           i 

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Contra-Bass 

^**   ^      ^       = 

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Trombone. 
Siegmund. 

=t              rq: 
"^"            5.0 

553^5  '=  —      —  *  *T  — 

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ernst 


mir 


er  -  scheint. 


Not  much  needs  to  be  added  to  that  already 
written  about  the  percussive  instruments  em- 
ployed in  the  orchestra.  The  tympani  remain 
the  most  important  of  these.  It  has  been  found 
that  one  player  can  perform  upon  three  drums 
108 


The  Brass  and  the  "Battery" 

with  little  more  difficulty  than  upon  two,  and 
hence  composers  now  frequently  score  for 
three,  and  sometimes  for  four.  It  is  not  un- 
common for  large  symphonic  scores  to  call 
for  three  tympani  together  with  bass-drum, 
cymbals,  and  other  percussive  instruments. 
Something  has  already  been  said  about  the 
methods  of  writing  for  tympani,  but  there  is  a 
little  to  add.  It  has  been  noted  that  the  primi- 
tive manner  of  writing  was  to  give  one  drum 
the  fundamental  note  of  the  tonic  chord,  and 
the  other  that  of  the  dominant,  but  previous  to 
Beethoven's  day  it  was  the  invariable  practice 
to  write  the  tonic  above  and  the  dominant  be- 
low, thus  tuning  the  drums  at  the  interval  of  a 
fourth.  The  other  style,  with  the  tonic  below 
and  the  dominant  above,  making  a  fifth,  was 
introduced  by  Beethoven.  The  same  master 
saw  the  advantage  of  tuning  his  tympani  in 
still  other  ways,  and  in  the  finale  of  the  Eighth 
Symphony  and  the  scherzo  of  the  Ninth  he 
wrote  for  them  in  octaves  at  their  extreme  com- 
pass (F  to  F).  Again,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
last  act  of  "  Fidelio,"  he  wrote  their  parts  in 
A  and  E  flat  in  a  dissonant  passage  of  much 
dramatic  power.  Weber  followed  Beethoven's 
example  and  wrote  for  tympani  in  C  and  A  in 
the  incantation  scene  of  "  Der  Freischiitz,"  and 
Wagner  has  made  a  similar  use  of  the  drums 

109 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


in  the  beginning  of  the  third  act  of  "Sieg- 
fried." 


fympani, 


Violas. 


ML 


Basso. 


ISP 


-m      1m    4    *l      |» 


Tata. 


fympani. 


Viola*. 


Celli. 


BUM. 


:s=*1 


jLq*«li    Ni   d^-X-X- 


I 


no 


The  Brass  and  the  "  Battery : 


In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  until  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  composers  employed 
tympani  only  in  brilliant  passages,  such  as 
marches,  overtures,  jubilant  choruses,  or  hymns 
of  thanksgiving;  and  in  these  they  were  always 
heard  with  the  trumpets.  It  was  Beethoven 
who  took  the  shackles  from  the  expressive 
powers  of  these  valuable  instruments  and 
showed  how  they  could  be  made  to  utter  notes 
of  overpowering  solemnity  and  mystery. 

The  bass-drum  is  frequently  used  in  the  or- 
chestra  either  with  or  without  the  cymbals,  and 
the  latter  are  often  heard  without  the  drum. 
Both  instruments  are  sadly  overworked  by 
noisy  composers,  yet  they  have  their  value. 
The  military  snare-drum  is  used  in  character- 
istic passages  where  a  military  idea  is  to  be 
suggested.  Tambourines  and  castanets  are 
also  used  in  appropriate  places.  The  gong, 
which  is  said  to  have  found  its  way  into  west- 
ern Europe  at  the  time  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, when  it  was  used  as  a  funeral  bell,  found 
its  way  into  the  opera-house  as  an  aid  to  music 
of  scenes  of  death  or  terror,  as  in  Meyerbeer's 
resurrection  of  the  nuns  in  "  Robert  le  Diable." 
It  is  now  used  occasionally  by  the  symphonists 
in  passages  of  portentous  significance. 

Bells  came  into  the  orchestra  for  dramaac 
purposes,  and  are  employed  in  various  ways, 

in 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


some  of  which  are  so  familiar  that  it  is  barely 
necessary  to  mention  them.  Handel  employed 
a  whole  chime  in  a  passage  in  his  "  Saul,"  and 
Mozart  used  a  set  of  little  bells  in  "  The  Magic 
Flute."  Meyerbeer  has  called  for  a  single 
deep-toned  bell  to  imitate  the  tocsin  of  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  in  "  Les  Hugue- 
nots," and  Wagner  has  used  several  in  "  Parsi- 
fal." The  latter  composer  has  used  the  carillon 
(little  bells)  with  fine  effect  in  the  magic-fire 
music  of  "  Die  Walktire."  The  lover  of  orches- 
tral music  needs  no  special  information  about 
bells.  They  are  capable  of  musical  pitch,  and 
their  notation  is  in  the  treble  or  bass  clef,  as 
the  case  may  be. 

The  xylophone  is  sometimes  employed  in 
music  of  an  artistic  sort.  A  most  excellent 
example  of  its  possibilities  may  be  found  in 
Saint-Saen's  "  Danse  Macabre,"  where  it  is 
supposed  to  imitate  the  rattling  of  bones  in  the 
grim  dance  of  Death. 

Score-readers  will  often  find  the  parts  for 
those  instruments  of  percussion  which  are  with- 
out musical  pitch,  such  as  triangles,  cymbals, 
bass-drums,  etc.,  written  not  on  a  stave,  but  on 
a  single  line.  The  rhythm  can  be  indicated 
satisfactorily  in  this  way,  and  that  is  all  that  is 
needed. 


112 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 

IT  is  now  possible  to  speak  more  in  detail 
about  those  essential  qualities  of  good  or- 
chestration to  which  reference  was  made  at  the 
beginning  of  this  part  of  the  book.  Unless  I 
have  failed  to  make  myself  understood,  the 
reader  will  be  prepared,  in  applying  the  prin- 
ciples of  orchestration  to  those  works  which 
may  come  under  his  attention,  to  benefit  by 
historical  perspective.  He  will  not  expect  of 
Haydn  or  Mozart  such  richness  and  complexity 
of  scoring  as  he  will  demand  and  find  in  the 
works  of  contemporaneous  composers.  The 
technics  of  orchestral  writing  are  very  thor- 
oughly and  widely  understood  in  our  day.  It 
is  expected,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  every 
composer  shall  understand  them.  Now,  this 
does  not  purport  to  be  a  text-book  on  orches- 
tration, yet  it  is  desirable  that  something  be 
said  for  the  information  of  the  amateur  of 
music  about  the  requirements  of  good  orches- 
tration. The  object  of  a  volume  of  this  kind 
113 


I 

How 'the  Orchestra  is  Used 

is  to  help  people  to  enjoy  music  by  pointing 
out  what  composers  have  designed  for  their 
enjoyment.  The  pleasure  to  be  derived  from 
the  performance  of  an  orchestral  composition 
must  naturally  be  largely  increased  when  the 
listener  is  alert  to  catch  all  the  varieties  of 
excellence  which  may  be  combined  in  it.  Or- 
chestration, as  I  have  already  said,  does  not 
mean  the  playing  of  an  orchestra,  though  the 
word  is  frequently  misused  in  that  sense.  It 
means  writing  for  an  orchestra,  and  it  has  cer- 
tain requirements  not  always  to  be  found  even 
in  the  works  of  the  great  masters.  Schumann, 
for  example,  scored  very  poorly,  and  some  of 
his  works  suffer  by  reason  of  his  inability  to 
clothe  his  poetic  thoughts  in  the  most  eloquent 
instrumental  language.  Meyerbeer,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  a  veritable  trickster  with  in- 
struments, and  could  produce  a  theatrical  effect 
with  a  penny-ballad  idea,  while  Berlioz  could 
enchant  an  audience  with  no  idea  at  all.  Beet- 
hoven and  Wagner  are  two  of  the  perfect 
models  of  orchestral  writing,  the  former  in  the 
classic  and  early  romantic  style,  and  the  latter 
in  the  fully  developed  romantic  style. 

The  qualities  of  good  orchestration  are  solid- 
ity, balance  of  tone,  contrast,  and  variety.     By 
solidity  is  meant  a  close  warp  of  the  instru- 
mental sounds  which  does  not  seem  to  have 
114 


WAGNER. 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 

holes  in  it.  A  chord  played  by  a  full  orchestra 
should  sound  like  the  utterance  of  one  great 
instrument,  not  like  the  utterance  of  a  number 
of  individuals.  The  tones  of  flutes,  oboes,  clari- 
nets, bassoons,  brass,  and  strings  should  blend 
into  one  grand  body.  When  such  a  result  is 
achieved,  whether  it  be  with  three  instruments 
or  one  hundred,  the  tone  is  said  to  be  solid.  If 
the  tone  is  not  solid,  it  is  because  the  harmony  is 
not  properly  dispersed.  Either  the  chords  are 
not  written  in  a  sufficiently  extended  form  or 
they  are  distributed  wrongly  among  the  instru- 
ments. The  first  requirement  of  solidity  is  good 
writing  for  the  strings.  It  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary that  their  part  should  be  so  written  that  it 
is  capable  of  independence;  that  is,  it  should 
sound  solid  when  played  without  the  other  in- 
struments. The  composer  must  give  each  note 
of  a  chord  to  that  instrument  which  is  best 
qualified  to  utter  it,  and  he  must  write  his 
chords  so  that  they  are  suited  to  orchestral 
enunciation. 

Pianists  make  sad  mistakes  when  they  come 
to  write  for  orchestra,  because  they  try  to  write 
in  a  piano  style.  They  are  so  accustomed  to 
seeing  a  melody  in  the  treble  clef  and  all  the 
accompaniment  in  the  bass,  that  they  frequently 
fail  to  find  any  use  for  their  soprano  instru- 
ments except  the  utterance  of  the  melody,  while 

"5 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 

all  the  barytone  and  bass  instruments  grumble 
a  muddy  accompaniment,  and  thus,  as  musicians 
say,  the  orchestra  is  "  all  top  and  bottom."  The 
illustration  below  will  help  to  explain  what  I 
mean.  It  shows  the  first  two  measures  of 
"  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  scored  k  la  pianist,  with 
the  orchestra  all  top  and  bottom,  and  as  an  or- 
chestral writer  would  spread  it  out  in  full  har- 
mony and  with  just  a  trifle  of  instrumental 
effect  in  the  arpeggio  for  the  second  clarinet 
doubled  by  the  'celli  pizzicati,  and  the  basses 
also  written  pizzicati  to  accentuate  the  attack 
of  each  chord. 

Even  in  writing  so  simple  a  thing  as  this, 
one  must  keep  in  mind  always  the  relative  tonal 
powers  of  the  various  instruments.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  second  measure  the  first  trumpet 
should  play  the  B  and  then  descend  to  the  G, 
because  otherwise  it  would  make  the  upper  D 
too  strong  and  destroy  the  effect  of  the  melody. 
The  first  trombone  should  do  the  same  thing. 
The  upper  D  in  each  chord  should  go  to  the 
first  horn  and  the  first  bassoon. 

Balance  of  tone  is  an  expression  used  to  indi- 
cate a  preservation  of  the  equilibrium  of  power 
among  the  three  choirs,  so  that  one  shall  not  be 
heard  too  clearly  at  the  expense  of  another.  In 
most  instances  this  depends  upon  principles 
similar  to  those  which  govern  solidity,  but  it 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 


Flutes. 
Oboes. 

%=j      t  i£- 

—  ^  1 

Clarinets. 
1st  Horn  & 

fly   r        r     E  =t= 

1st  Trumpet. 

Bassons. 
3d  Horn. 

j-f1  FMjd= 

an—*  —  g—  n   5  |  *,= 

=4-*-  h 

Trombones. 
1st  Violin. 

r 

Other  Strings. 

2  Flutes. 
3  Oboes. 

r        r        r 

i/g  a  —  ¥'•    f~rw~ 

, 

1st  Clar. 
3d  Clar. 

^L'J'cLJ  t£ 

:j^P 

Trumpets 

& 

?P   d   —  J  r^~ 

Horns. 

Bassons 

^J   4    J 

1 

Trombones 
1st  Violins. 

^_J       J.-^= 

r 
j    =1 

3d  Violins. 
Violas. 

IPlir 

Celli. 

i*.  J^J  .J---^  .- 

[il  j  jj 

BMBJ. 

P*  .  ,•  —  *  —  f  —  *  —  Lf_ 

piz| 

'    r   *n 

How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


also  requires  a  constant  consideration  of  the 
sonority  of  the  three  choirs  regarded  as  sepa- 
rate bodies.  For  instance,  the  wood-wind  in- 
struments cannot  possibly  be  played  as  softly 
as  the  strings;  hence,  if  the  composer  wishes  to 
get  a  pianissimo  effect,  he  must  not  write  full 
chords  for  the  wood.  Strings,  with  clarinets 
or  flutes  in  the  lower  register,  produce  an  ex- 
cellent pianissimo.  Cornets,  on  the  other  hand, 
cannot  play  pianissimo  along  with  strings,  be- 
cause their  softest  tone  is  louder  than  that  of  the 
strings,  and  the  balance  is  destroyed.  Balance 
of  tone,  when  all  the  instruments  are  playing 
together,  is  largely  dependent  upon  the  judg- 
ment of  the  conductor.  He  should  see  to  it,  for 
instance,  that  his  brass  instruments  do  not  play 
too  loudly.  But  it  is  also  a  matter  of  scoring, 
and  frequently  a  conductor  is  helpless  in  the 
presence  of  the  written  page.  In  the  scherzo 
of  Schumann's  E  flat  symphony  there  is  a  pas- 
sage in  which  the  first  theme  is  given  to  the  clar- 
inets, bassoon,  second  violins,  violas,  and  'cellos, 
while  the  first  violins,  trumpets,  and  horns  play 
chords  above  them.  All  are  directed  to  play 
mezzo-forte,  and  the  result  is  that  the  brass 
chords  quite  overpower  the  melody.  A  similar 
passage  is  to  be  found  in  the  andante  of  Beet- 
hoven's Fifth  Symphony.  No  conductor  can  get 
a  perfect  balance  of  tone  out  of  such  passages. 

118 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 

Contrast  is  obtained  by  employing  instru- 
ments of  different  tone-quality  to  play  the  prin- 
cipal parts  at  different  times.  A  principal  me- 
lodic idea  may  be  introduced  by  a  trumpet  or 
a  clarinet,  and  continued  by  flutes  or  oboes,  and 
finally  sung  by  all  the  first  violins.  Sometimes 
the  wood-wind  plays  alone,  to  be  succeeded  by 
the  strings.  These  alternations  of  tonal  color 
produce  contrasts,  without  which  the  richest 
and  most  solid  scoring  might  become  monot- 
onous. Variety  is  the  result  of  mixing  the 
tonal  tints.  For  instance,  some  passages  will 
be  written  for  two  flutes,  two  horns  and  strings ; 
presently  all  the  strings  cease  to  sound  except 
the  first  violins,  which  chant  the  melody  sup- 
ported by  a  harmony  of  brass  ;  now  the  tone  of 
the  clarinets  mingles  with  that  of  the  violins, 
and  the  combination  of  the  two  produces  a 
new  color.  Variety  is  also  obtained  by  giving 
melodic  fragments,  not  essential  parts  of  the 
melody,  to  some  of  the  instruments  not  en- 
gaged in  voicing  the  principal  theme.  As  the 
author  has  had  occasion  to  say  elsewhere : 

"  A  great  many  persons  do  not  hear  anything 
definitely  except  the  principal  melody,  while 
beautiful  bits  of  counterpoint  and  exquisite 
effects  of  harmony  are  lost  to  them  because 
they  have  not  learned  how  to  follow  the  many 
voices  of  an  orchestra.  Every  oerson  should 
119 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


acquire  the  habit  of  ear-analysis.  The  amount 
of  pleasure  added  to  the  hearing  of  a  symphony 
by  ability  to  hear  all  the  instruments  at  once 
is  what  might  be  added  to  the  delight  of  seeing 
a  painting  if  the  power  to  perceive  the  colors 
were  given  to  one  who  had  before  noticed  only 
the  drawing." 

The  student  of  orchestral  music  will  find 
great  solidity  and  balance  of  tone  in  the  works 
of  the  early  masters.  Bach's  writing  is  always 
substantial,  but  there  is  no  large  amount  of 
contrast  and  variety  in  it.  This  is  partly  ow- 
ing to  the  lack  of  instruments  and  partly  to 
the  meagre  technical  resources  of  those  wind- 
instruments  which  he  had.  The  oboe  was 
Bach's  mainstay  as  a  wind  voice,  and  its  range 
of  expressiveness,  of  color,  of  dynamic  grada- 
tion, and  of  agility,  is  small.  The  wood-wind 
choir  could  not  reach  its  full  measure  of  use- 
fulness till  it  had  acquired  the  clarinet,  which 
has  within  itself  a  considerable  range  of  tone- 
color,  is  a  far  more  agile  instrument  than  the 
oboe,  and  possesses  in  a  far  higher  degree  than 
any  other  wood-wind  instrument  the  power  of 
increasing  and  diminishing  the  volume  of  tone. 
It  is,  indeed,  as  Berlioz  has  said  in  his  enthu- 
siastic style,  the  true  dramatic  soprano  of  the 
orchestra.  "  This  beautiful  soprano  instrument, 
so  ringing,  so  rich  in  penetrating  accents,  when 

120 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 

employed  in  masses,  gains,  as  a  solo,  in  del- 
icacy, evanescent  shadowings,  and  mysterious 
tenderness  what  it  loses  in  force  and  power- 
ful brilliancy.  .  .  .  It  is  the  one  of  all  the 
wind-instruments  which  can  best  breathe  forth, 
swell,  diminish  and  die  away  its  sound." 

Without  the  clarinet,  however,  Bach  and 
Handel  accomplished  much  with  the  means  at 
their  command.  Witness  the  former's  lovely 
piece  of  writing  for  a  horn  and  two  bassoons 
in  the  "  Quoniam "  of  the  famous  mass  in  B 
minor,  and  the  latter's  admirable  coloring  with 
even  strings  alone,  as  in  "  Angels  ever  Bright 
and  Fair,"  and  "  Suddenly  There  was  Round 
About  Him  a  Multitude."  The  possibilities  of 
coloring  increased  as  new  instruments  came 
into  use,  and  the  clarinet  was  at  once  appreci- 
ated by  Mozart,  who  may  be  said  to  have  made 
the  first  systematic  attempts  at  specific  tone 
coloring. 

The  completion  of  the  wood-wind  choir  by 
the  introduction  of  the  clarinet  gave  needed 
freedom  to  composers.  Haydn -in  his  old  age 
advanced  beyond  Mozart  in  tone-coloring, 
while  Beethoven,  who,  as  I  have  shown,  had  a 
special  feeling  for  the  individuality  of  instru- 
ments, developed  the  features  of  contrast  and 
variety  far  beyond  anything  which  his  prede- 
cessors had  conceived.  Weber's  orchestral 


121 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


technic  is  immense.  He  understood  thoroughly 
all  the  requirements  of  good  orchestration,  and 
to  this  day  his  works  sound  full,  sonorous,  and 
brilliant,  even  when  heard  at  concerts  where 
the  most  recent  products  are  displayed.  With 
Weber,  the  romantic  movement,  of  which  I  shall 
have  more  to  say  hereafter,  was  fairly  launched, 
and  its  representative  composers  have  all  em- 
ployed  every  resource  of  contrast  and  variety 
without  neglecting  solidity  and  balance  of  tone. 
Brahms  is  one  of  the  moderns  who  did  not 
master  the  technic  of  orchestration.  He  wrote 
heavy  chords  low  in  the  bass  in  his  piano 
music,  and  he  carried  this  practice  into  his 
orchestration,  with  the  result  that  his  scoring  is 
almost  always  thick  and  heavy  in  the  middle 
voices.  Wagner,  on  the  other  hand,  knew  how 
to  write  deep,  sonorous  basses  without  disturb- 
ing the  clarity  of  his  work.  Most  of  the  French 
composers  score  beautifully.  In  all  the  field  of 
opera  there  is  not  a  warmer  or  more  delicately 
refined  score  than  that  of  "  Faust,"  while  M. 
Saint-Saens's  orchestration  is  at  once  the  model 
and  the  despair  of  young  composers. 

Amateurs  of  music  will  find,  as  they  advance 
in  the  study  of  scores,  that  every  composer  has 
a  distinct  style.  For  instance,  Tschaikowsky 
wrote  much  that  was  weird,  sombre,  or  melan- 
choly, and  the  music-lover  will  find  that  he 

122 


Qualities  of  Good  Orchestration 

made  extensive  use  of  the  upper  register  of  the 
bassoon  (and,  indeed,  of  its  whole  scale),  of  the 
low  notes  of  clarinets,  and  of  the  English  horn 
to  aid  him  in  producing  a  gloomy,  dry  color. 
Liszt's  instrumentation  is  always  rich  and 
heavy ;  Dvorak's  always  strong,  clear,  and 
bright.  Beethoven  has  little  peculiarities,  such 
as  doubling  a  melody  in  the  lower  octave  with 
a  bassoon.  Meyerbeer  is  fond  of  queer  com- 
binations,  such  as  English  horn  and  piccolo. 
Richard  Strauss  writes  staccato  chords  for 
trumpets,  and  makes  horns  do  things  which 
fifty  years  ago  would  have  been  deemed  im- 
possible. But  the  fundamental  principles  of 
orchestration  cannot  be  violated  by  any  writer 
with  impunity,  and  the  student  will  find  these 
principles  epitomized  and  amply  illustrated  in 
the  nine  symphonies  of  the  supreme  master 
of  symphonic  composition,  Ludwig  von  Beet- 
hoven. 


**> 


XI 

Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

PERHAPS  the  first  requisite  for  good  or- 
chestral performance  should  be  set  forth  as 
good  instruments.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  some  orchestras  are  seriously  injured  by 
the  presence  of  half  a  dozen  vulgar-toned  fid- 
dles among  the  violins,  by  a  very  yellow  clari- 
net among  the  wood,  or  a  blatant  cornet  where 
a  mellow  trumpet  ought  to  be.  This  is  seldom 
the  case  in  a  regularly  maintained  concert  or- 
chestra, yet  it  does  happen  sometimes  even 
there.  The  New  York  Philharmonic  Society 
suiters  a  good  deal  from  this  cause.  The  or- 
chestra is  the  society,  and  many  of  its  members 
never  play  in  any  artistic  concerts  except  those 
of  the  organization.  They  have  poor  instru- 
ments, which  do  not  aid  in  the  production  of  a 
noble  tone,  such  as  should  come  from  an  orches- 
tra of  this  kind.  Again,  there  are  individual 
players  whose  peculiar  faults  are  displayed  to 
the  general  disadvantage  of  an  orchestra.  The 
concert-master  (leading  first  violin)  of  a  certain 

124 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

New  York  orchestra  cannot  play  in  tune  and  has 
a  vicious  style  of  bowing.  The  first  oboe  of  the 
same  orchestra  has  a  peculiar  tone,  which  robs 
his  instrument  of  its  individuality  and  makes  it 
resemble  a  clarinet.  A  well-known  solo  horn 
player  produces  from  his  instrument  a  tone 
which  sounds  more  like  that  of  a  valve  trombone 
or  a  euphonium  than  that  of  a  French  horn. 
Such  individual  faults  injure  the  general  effect 
of  an  orchestra's  playing,  though  they  are  not 
strictly  to  be  classed  under  the  head  of  quali- 
ties of  orchestral  performance.  The  requisites 
of  concert  orchestral  playing  are  the  following: 

Quality,  solidity,  and  balance  of  tone;  pre- 
cision, unanimity,  flexibility,  and  light  and 
shade. 

The  quality  of  tone  which  proceeds  from  an 
orchestra  should  be  smooth  and  mellow.  It 
should  never  be  possible  for  the  audience  to 
hear  the  rasping  of  stringed  instruments,  nor 
the  gasping  of  brass  ones.  The  tone  of  an  or- 
chestra should  be  capable  of  growing  to  its  full 
power  without  pantings.  It  should  always  flow 
freely  and  with  liquid  purity.  It  should  never 
reveal  its  own  mechanism.  One  should  never 
be  able  to  detect  the  scraping  of  the  bow  which 
makes  the  fiddle  speak,  nor  the  vibrating  of  the 
reed  in  the  throat  of  the  clarinet.  The  tone  of 
a  great  orchestra  should  come  forth  spontane- 
125 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


ously  and  without  apparent  effort,  as  that  of  a 
great  singer  does,  filling  every  cranny  of  the 
auditorium  and  seizing  upon  the  heartstrings 
of  every  hearer. 

And  it  should  have  solidity,  which  is  easier 
to  hear  than  to  describe.  One  knows  at  once 
when  the  tone  sounds  thin  and  anaemic  and 
when  it  sounds  healthy  and  full-blooded,  but  it 
is  not  easy  to  point  out  the  peculiarities  of  this 
quality.  Sometimes  an  orchestra's  tone  is  not 
solid  because  there  are  too  few  players  for  the 
demands  of  the  auditorium.  Sometimes  it  is  be- 
cause the  instrumentalists  are  not  playing  ex- 
actly together,  and  the  vibrations  of  each  tone 
of  the  melody,  as  caused  by  say  a  dozen  violins, 
are  not  isochronous.  Again,  tone  lacks  solidity 
at  times  because  the  individual  performers  are 
not  capable,  and  it  is  frequently,  like  want  of 
quality,  due  to  poor  instruments. 

Balance  of  tone  has  the  same  meaning  in  per- 
formance as  it  has  in  orchestration.  It  is  equal- 
ity of  dynamic  force  among  the  constituent 
parts  of  the  band.  As  already  said,  it  is  the  re- 
sult partly  of  good  orchestration  and  partly  of 
the  guiding  skill  of  the  conductor ;  but  it  de- 
pends also  in  a  measure  upon  the  constitution 
of  the  orchestra.  The  average  theatre  orches- 
tra is  an  eloquent  demonstration  of  the  bad 
effects  of  poor  balance  among  the  instruments. 

126 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

The  desperate  struggles  of  two  first  violins,  one 
second,  one  viola,  one  'cello,  and  one  double- 
bass  to  produce  sufficient  sound  to  make  them- 
selves heard  in  forte  passages  against  the  sono- 
rous pealing  of  a  cornet,  a  trombone,  and  a  pair 
of  tympani,  are  as  vain  as  they  are  ridiculous. 
Such  efforts  are  repeated  on  a  larger  scale 
when  modern  symphonic  music  is  performed 
by  an  orchestra  whose  strings  are  led  by  six 
first  violins.  It  is  not  possible  for  six  firsts,  six 
seconds,  four  violas,  three  'cellos,  and  three 
double-basses  to  maintain  a  proper  balance  of 
tone  against  two  or  three  flutes,  two  oboes,  two 
bassoons,  four  horns,  two  trumpets,  three  trom- 
bones, a  tuba,  and  tympani.  An  orchestra  with 
six  first  violins  should  not  attempt  music  or- 
chestrated in  the  romantic  style.  It  would  be 
much  better  for  such  an  orchestra  to  omit  two 
horns  and  add  two  violins,  and  confine  itself  to 
music  suitable  to  such  an  array  of  instruments. 
When  there  are  only  six  first  violins  it  is  not 
wise  to  attempt  works  which  call  for  divisions 
of  those  six  into  four  parts.  It  is  always  absurd 
to  hear  an  orchestra  with  three  'cellos  trying 
to  "  fake  "  the  opening  measures  of  Rossini's 
"William  Tell"  overture,  and  in  the  tutti  the 
trombone  rages  like  a  Hon.  It  is  generally  con- 
ceded in  this  country  that  a  concert  orchestra 
requires  about  60  stringed  instruments  to  give 
127 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


a  proper  balance  to  the  wood  and  brass.  I 
have  already  spoken  of  the  constitution  of  the 
Boston  Symphony  Orchestra,  which  has  58 
strings  on  a  basis  of  16  first  violins.  The  Chi- 
cago Orchestra  has  61,  and  the  New  York 
Philharmonic  Society,  78.  The  London  Phil- 
harmonic has  54,  the  Vienna  Philharmonic,  68, 
and  the  Paris  Conservatoire,  60. 

Given  a  proper  array  of  instruments,  the 
preservation  of  balance  of  tone  is  due  chiefly 
to  the  conductor,  though  it  is  also  necessary 
that  the  players  should  not  be  troubled  with 
individual  ambition.  The  occasional  solo  af- 
fords the  individual  player  an  opportunity  to 
display  his  powers,  but  at  all  other  times  he 
should  be  content  to  sacrifice  his  glory  for  the 
general  result.  A  good  orchestra  is  in  this  re- 
spect like  a  perfect  boat-crew ;  every  man  in 
it  should  be  part  of  a  machine  to  produce  a 
single  effect.  Whenever  one  man  in  a  boat- 
crew  is  seized  with  a  notion  that  he  can  pull 
the  whole  boat  himself,  the  crew  goes  to  pieces 
and  loses  the  race.  So  in  an  orchestra,  if  the 
second  trombonist,  for  example,  is  convinced 
that  the  audience  ought  to  hear  his  part,  he 
destroys  the  balance  of  the  performance  and 
oversets  the  composer's  purpose.  Of  course,  a 
conductor  must  do  all  he  can  to  see  that  the 
ambitious  second  trombonist  does  not  mis- 

128 


CHARLES   LAMOUREUX. 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

behave,  but  it  requires  a  real  esprit  de  corps  in 
an  orchestra  to  maintain  an  ideal  balance  of 
tone.  Brass  is  blatant  in  forte  passages  if  al- 
lowed to  have  its  own  way,  and  wood,  unre- 
strained, is  frequently  too  strong  in  moderato 
or  piano  bits. 

Plenty  of  strings  is  the  only  remedy  for  a 
bad  balance  which  careful  playing  will  not  cor- 
rect, and  a  plenty  of  strings  is  to  be  found 
only  in  large  concert  orchestras.  Even  in  opera- 
houses  the  strings  are  often  too  few,  while  in 
theatres  they  nearly  always  are.  The  average 
theatrical  manager  knows  very  little  about  mu- 
sic and  cares  less.  A  business  manager  who 
knew  something  of  the  tone  art  was  once  en- 
gaged by  a  manager  who  controlled  a  travel- 
ling exhibition  of  "  Midsummer  Night's  Dream," 
with  all  Mendelssohn's  music.  He  thought  his 
exhibition  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  me- 
tropolis, but  the  business  manager  said  to  him : 

"  If  we  go  into  New  York,  we'll  have  to  in- 
crease the  orchestra." 

"  What  for  ?  "  replied  the  manager.  "  We 
have  all  sorts  of  instruments  now,  haven't  we  ?  " 

"  But  we  ought  to  have  more  first  violins." 

"  What !  more  than  two  f  ' ' 

But,  after  all,  the  theatre  is  hardly  the  place 
to  look  for  art  in  music.  The  concert-hall  and 
the  opera-house  are  its  homes,  but  owing  to 
129 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


the  conditions  which  surround  the  performance 
of  opera  in  most  places,  only  the  concert  or- 
chestra can  be  expected  to  show  the  highest 
possibilities  of  performance.  In  such  an  or- 
chestra we  may  expect  to  find  a  proper  dis- 
tribution of  instruments,  and  having  that,  we 
should  demand  a  perfect  solidity  and  balance 
of  tone.  I  can  hardly  put  too  much  emphasis 
on  the  necessity  of  good  tone.  Although  the 
mere  quality  of  sound  belongs  to  the  lowest 
department  of  musical  excellence,  the  sensuous, 
it  is  nevertheless  an  instrument  of  the  greatest 
power  in  the  presentation  of  musical  thought. 
There  is  something  vital  in  a  noble  tone,  some- 
thing enthralling  and  inspiring.  One  recog- 
nizes it  immediately  when  it  is  the  voice  of  a 
distinguished  singer,  and  I  have  seen  audiences 
moved  to  amazing  enthusiasm  by  a  glorious 
voice  which  had  neither  dramatic  intelligence 
nor  vocal  cunning  to  aid  the  potent  spell  of  its 
pure  quality.  An  orchestra  should  be  a  mighty 
singer  in  every  sense,  and  it  must  have  the 
first  requisite  of  one  —  a  fine  voice.  There 
should  be  nothing  cheap  or  vulgar  in  its  tone. 
It  should  be  one  grand  flow  of  gorgeous,  all- 
surrounding  sound,  smooth,  sweet,  mellow,  and 
pure,  whether  heard  in  the  aerial  whisper  of 
the  last  bars  of  the  "Lohengrin"  prelude  or 
the  thunderous  peal  of  the  "  Kaisermarsch." 
130 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

Tone  being  assured,  the  next  traits  of  vital 
importance  in  orchestral  performance  are  pre- 
cision and  unanimity.  Precision  is  a  feature  of 
attack,  while  unanimity  refers  to  those  parts  of 
a  passage  not  included  in  the  attack.  Both  are 
dependent  upon  the  elementary  business  of 
keeping  together.  If  the  players  of  an  orches- 
tra are  not  at  all  times  absolutely  at  one  in  their 
work,  there  can  be  neither  precision  nor  una- 
nimity. Precision  is  keeping  absolutely  to- 
gether in  beginning  and  finishing,  whether  it  be 
a  detached  chord  or  tone,  or  a  phrase.  Una- 
nimity is  keeping  together,  in  time  and  force  and 
all  other  requirements,  between  the  beginning 
and  the  end.  The  act  of  commencing  a  tone  is 
called  the  attack.  This  should  be  so  precise 
that  the  tone  seems  to  be  produced  by  a  single 
instrument,  not  by  a  number.  If  it  is  a  de- 
tached tone,  or  a  phrase  like  that  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Beethoven's  C  minor  symphony,  every 
instrument  engaged  in  its  utterance  should 
cease  to  sound  at  exactly  the  same  instant. 
Precision  is  a  matter  in  which  many  auditors 
are  deceived.  I  well  remember  how  I  gaped 
in  wonder  in  my  boyish  days  when  I  heard  an 
orchestra  under  Theodore  Thomas  play  a  se- 
ries of  staccato  chords  with  such  precision  that 
they  came  out  like  the  cracks  of  a  whip.  I 
have  since  learned  that  this  is  one  of  the  easiest 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


feats  of  an  orchestra.  It  is  a  far  greater  test 
of  precision  to  play  with  absolute  sharpness 
and  clearness  of  cut  a  passage  such  as  this  from 
the  Ninth  Symphony  : 


§- 
- 


Furthermore,  precision  is  just  as  necessary  to 
the  correct  performance  of  flowing  cantabile 
passages  as  it  is  to  those  of  vigorous  declam- 
atory style.  It  belongs  to  the  general  depart- 
ment of  accuracy,  and  without  accuracy  in 
such  features  as  the  duration  of  sounds,  no  or- 
chestral playing  can  have  color,  force,  or  finish. 

Unanimity,  as  I  have  said,  means  keeping 
together  in  matters  other  than  the  beginning 
and  ending  of  a  tone  or  phrase.  Attention  has 
been  called  to  the  fact  that  if  the  notes  of  a 
melody  and  its  harmonies  are  not  played  in 
exactly  the  same  time  by  all  the  instruments 
engaged  in  their  performance,  the  quality  of 
tone  is  seriously  impaired  ;  but  it  must  now  be 
added  that  further  injury  comes  in  the  shape 
of  destruction  of  the  outlines  of  the  rhythm. 
This  is  such  an  important  factor  in  all  music 
that  to  decrease  its  clearness  is  like  blurring 
132 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

the  outlines  of  a  drawing.  When  the  rhythm  of 
an  orchestral  composition  or  the  outlines  in  a 
painting  are  destroyed,  there  remains  nothing 
but  a  blurred  color-scheme.  A  color-scheme  is 
often  very  pretty,  but  it  is  no  more  a  composi- 
tion than  the  view  in  a  kaleidoscope  is  a  land 
scape. 

Unanimity,  furthermore,  includes  something 
beyond  mere  clearness  of  enunciation.  It  em- 
braces also  accent.  In  such  a  phrase  as  that 
quoted  above  from  the  Ninth  Symphony,  there 
are  a  series  of  natural  accentuations,  and  it  is 
essential  to  a  brilliant  and  stirring  utterance  of 
the  phrase  that  every  instrument  in  the  orches- 
tra should  put  the  accents  in  the  same  places 
and  give  them  the  same  amount  of  force.  In 
passages  which  are  not  written  for  the  whole 
orchestra  there  should  be  unanimity  in  accent 
among  those  for  which  they  are  written.  In 
fact,  an  orchestra  should  have  absolutely  mil- 
itary accuracy  in  all  its  work,  and  this  presup- 
poses long  and  arduous  drill  and  extended 
association.  Permanency  is  a  necessity  to  fine 
orchestral  work.  Men  who  have  played  to- 
gether a  long  time,  even  under  an  inferior  con- 
ductor, will  play  with  much  more  precision 
and  unanimity  than  men  newly  brought  to- 
gether under  the  beat  of  a  famous  director. 
The  highest  results  are  attainable  only  with  a 
133 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


permanent  orchestra  under  a  competent  con- 
ductor. 

But  with  all  this  precision  and  unanimity  the 
playing  of  an  orchestra  should  be  flexible.  As 
I  have  said  in  another  volume,  "  The  music 
should  never  sound  rigid,  but  should  seem  to 
come  in  a  sinuous  stream  of  purling  sound." 
The  average  concert-goer  would  probably  de- 
scribe the  playing  of  an  orchestra  deficient  in 
flexibility  as  "  stiff,"  and  that  is  a  very  expressive 
way  of  putting  it.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
in  "  H.  M.  S.  Pinafore  "  the  only  person  who 
was  invariably  right  was  Dick  Deadeye,  but 
everyone  applauded  Buttercup's  assertion  that 
he  was  "  a  little  triangular."  An  orchestra 
must  always  be  correct,  but  it  need  not  be  tri- 
angular. Inflexibility  is  usually  the  result  of 
bad  conducting. 

A  martinet,  with  phlegmatic  temperament, 
can  make  an  orchestra  play  as  inflexibly  as  a 
street  piano.  A  conductor  of  excessively  melt- 
ing temperament  will  often  melt  his  orchestra 
so  that  its  playing  will  be  as  sweet,  as  flexible, 
and  as  limp  as  hot  taffy. 

And  this  brings  us  to  the  all-important  ques- 
tion of  light  and  shade.  The  fundamental  ele- 
ment of  light  and  shade  is  the  distribution  of 
force  and  speed.  An  orchestra  is  capable  of  a 
pianissimo,  which  is  like  the  softest  whisper  of 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

a  summer  evening's  breeze,  and  of  a  fortissimo, 
which  is  like  the  booming  of  a  thunder-storm. 
There  is  an  infinitesimal  scale  of  gradations 
between  these  two  extremes,  and  these  should 
all  be  properly  employed.  Of  course,  their  use 
is  guided  by  the  conductor,  but  they  form  a 
part  of  the  technics  of  orchestral  playing,  and 
hence  must  be  described  here.  All  lovers  of 
music  know  what  effects  are  brought  about  by 
skilful  use  of  alterations  of  tempo — the  accele- 
rando and  ritardando — and  by  the  combination 
of  these  with  gradations  of  force.  In  the  appli- 
cation of  these  devices  an  orchestra  should  be 
adept.  The  placing  of  the  effects  is,  of  course, 
indicated  in  the  score,  or,  if  not,  must  be  the 
result  of  the  judgment  and  taste  of  the  conduc- 
tor; but  the  manner  of  producing  them  is  the 
work  of  the  performers.  It  requires  frequent 
rehearsal  to  get  these  effects  made  with  preci- 
sion, unanimity,  and  smoothness  of  tone,  yet 
they  should  be  so  made.  An  orchestra  should 
sing  like  a  great  singer,  and  it  should  be  able 
to  produce  all  the  delicate  shades  of  song  as  a 
human  voice  can. 

But  an  orchestra  has  many  voices,  and  the 
composer  often  takes  advantage  of  this  fact. 
He  frequently  calls  upon  his  instrument  to  sing 
several  melodies  simultaneously,  or,  as  in  the 
case  of  a  fugal  work,  different  parts  of  the  same 
135 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


melody  at  the  same  time.  This  kind  of  writing 
calls  for  a  distinct  delivery  of  the  middle  voices. 
Even  in  compositions  which  are  not  polyphonic, 
there  are  often  subsidiary  melodic  fragments  in 
parts  other  than  those  which  are  playing  the 
principal  theme.  These  fragments  should  be 
heard ;  composers  do  not  write  them  by  acci- 
dent. They  should  blossom  out  spontaneously 
as  exuberant  exfoliations  of  the  harmonic  gar- 
den. They  should  not  be  thrust  obstreperously 
in  the  faces  of  the  auditors,  but  they  should  not 
be  permitted  to  escape  notice.  The  middle 
voices  are  sadly  neglected  at  times.  Some  con- 
ductors seem  to  confine  their  whole  study  of  a 
score  to  hunting  for  the  principal  theme  and 
bringing  that  out,  while  the  delicious  bits  of 
counterpoint,  which  the  composer  has  been  at 
no  small  pains  to  devise,  are  left  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  Such  conductors  remind  me  of  a 
professional  musician  who  was  engaged  in  a 
discussion  of  Richard  Wagner  in  the  corridor 
of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  while  inside 
the  orchestra  was  playing  the  vorspiel  to  "  Die 
Meistersinger." 

"  It  is  a  pity,"  said  this  wise  man,  in  a  conde- 
scending manner ;  "  but  Wagner  knew  abso- 
lutely nothing  about  counterpoint." 

And  at  that  very  instant  the  orchestra  was 
singing  five  different  melodies  at  once ;  and,  as 
136 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

Anton  Seidl  was  the  conductor,  they  were  all 
audible. 

Light  and  shade,  as  we  roughly  call  them — 
the  German  "  nuancirung "  (nuancing)  is  far 
better — depend  also  on  phrasing.  In  singing, 
phrasing  means  the  division  of  the  melody  into 
groups  of  notes,  so  that  breath  can  be  taken. 
Now,  phrasing  is  obviously  quite  as  vital  to 
wind-instrument  players  as  to  singers,  because 
the  former,  too,  must  have  intervals  to  take 
breath.  Obviously,  if  the  several  players  stop 
to  take  breath,  they  should  cease  to  sound  their 
instruments  at  the  same  instant,  and  begin  again 
with  equal  precision.  A  similar  grouping  of 
notes  is  made  in  the  performance  of  bowed  in- 
struments by  the  movements  of  the  bow.  All 
violin-players  know  that  there  is  a  difference  in 
the  results  produced  by  the  up-stroke  and  those 
by  the  down-stroke.  Phrasing  in  the  orchestra, 
then,  is  the  technical  treatment  of  the  natural 
groups  of  tones  which  form  the  component 
parts  of  a  melody  in  such  a  way  that  they  shall 
come  out  clearly  and  symmetrically  and  in  a 
vocal  style.  Here  again  we  come  upon  the 
technical  part  of  a  conductor's  work.  It  is  he  1 
who  regulates  the  phrasing.  The  distribution  of 
up  and  down  strokes  of  the  bow  is  in  a  general 
way  left  to  the  concert-master,  the  leader  of 
the  first  violins,  but  he  is,  of  course,  subject  to 

137 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


the  direction  of  the  conductor.  Many  com- 
posers of  the  present  day  mark  the  bowing  in 
particular  passages,  but  most  of  them  content 
themselves  with  indicating  such  things  as 
slurred  notes  and  staccati,  or  special  effects, 
such  as  playing  near  the  bridge,  or  with  the 
point  of  the  bow.  The  legato  of  stringed  in- 
struments is  indicated  in  a  score  by  a  curved 
line  drawn  over  or  under  the  passages,  thus : 


Detached  notes  are  indicated  by  dots,  while 
lightly  detached  ones,  to  be  played  with  a  single 
stroke,  are  indicated  by  dots  with  a  slur,  or 
legato  mark,  over  them,  thus  : 


a 


'  r  r  r  .  -     t=F=p 


-    -    - 


All  these  details  of  bowing  and  of  breathing 
in  the  wind-instrument  choir  should  be  care- 
fully regulated.  They  are  elementary  parts  of 
the  technic  of  orchestral  performance,  and  they 
contribute  to  the  production  of  smoothness,  ele- 
gance, and  refinement  in  the  playing  of  a  band, 
138 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

as  well  as  to  force,  brilliancy,  and  expression. 
Furthermore,  all  demands  of  the  composer  in 
regard  to  the  use  of  particular  instruments 
or  the  uncommon  treatment  of  instruments 
should  be  respected.  If  the  result  is  bad,  it  is 
the  composer's  fault.  But  it  is  usually  good. 
When  Hans  Sachs,  in  "Die  Meistersinger," 
makes  David  a  journeyman  cobbler,  he  smacks 
the  boy's  ear  with  his  broad  hand,  and  Wagner 
imitates  the  ringing  in  the  offended  member  by 
the  whizzing  note  of  a  stopped  horn.  To  play 
that  note  unstopped  would  be  to  defeat  the 
composer's  intention.  It  would  be  equally 
wrong  to  neglect  to  put  mutes  on  where  di- 
rected to  do  so.  Sometimes  composers  call 
for  very  curious  performances,  but  their  wishes 
should  be  respected  as  far  as  possible.  For  in- 
stance, in  his  "  Lelio,  ou  le  retour  a  la  vie," 
Berlioz  has  written  a  passage  for  clarinet  "  con 
sordino,"  and  has  directed  that  the  instru- 
ment should  be  muted  by  being  "  wrapped  in 
a  bag  of  cloth  or  leather."  His  desire  was  to 
give  the  clarinet  a  veiled  and  distant  sound, 
and  his  wishes  should  be  carried  out.  In  an- 
other place  Berlioz  calls  for  tympani  drum- 
sticks with  heads  of  sponge.  Wagner  calls  for 
tenor  tubas  in  the  funeral  march  of  "  Die 
Gotterdammerung,"  and  Mozart  calls  for  a 
mandolin  to  accompany  Don  Giovanni's  "  Deh 
139 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


vieni."  Such  requirements  should  always  be 
fulfilled,  and  so  should  all  directions  as  to  the 
manner  of  performance. 

We  are  in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  what 
may  be  called  the  virtuoso  orchestra  is  a  prod- 
uct of  our  own  time,  but  perhaps  we  flatter 
ourselves.  It  is  very  certain  that  the  orchestra 
of  the  Paris  Conservatoire  played  with  splen- 
did precision  and  with  much  fire  half  a  century 
ago,  and  there  are  other  orchestras  in  Europe 
which  have  to  live  up  to  some  pretty  old  tradi- 
tions. It  was  only  last  September  (1898)  that 
the  Dresden  Court  Orchestra  celebrated  its 
three  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary.  To  be 
sure,  when  it  was  established  by  the  Elector 
Maurice  it  was  a  singing  choir,  whose  members 
learned  to  play  instruments  in  order  to  supply 
accompaniments;  but  it  developed  into  an 
orchestra,  and  as  such  it  helped  to  produce 
Heinrich  Schiitz's  "  Seven  Last  Words  of 
Christ,"  and  his  "  Daphne,"  which  was  the  first 
German  opera.  The  Esterhazy  orchestra,  un- 
der Haydn,  was  no  mean  band,  and  the  famous 
Mannheim  orchestra,  under  Stamitz,  revealed 
possibilities  of  performance  which  did  much 
toward  forming  Mozart's  symphonic  style. 
The  Leipsic  Gewandhaus  orchestra  dates  back 
to  1743,  when  it  numbered  sixteen  players  and 
gave  its  concerts  in  a  private  house.  These 
140 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

concerts  were  interrupted  by  the  Seven  Years' 
War,  but  were  resumed  in  1763  with  an  orches 
tra  of  thirty.  The  first  concert  in  the  new 
Gewandhaus  rooms  took  place  on  September 
29, 1781.  Since  that  time  the  seasons  have  been 
regular.  Mendelssohn  was  the  conductor  from 
1835  to  1843,  and  Neils  W.  Gade  from  1844  to 
1848.  The  development  of  style  and  technic  in 
the  performances  of  this  orchestra  had  very  con- 
siderable influence  on  the  advance  of  orchestral 
playing  throughout  Europe.  Other  notable 
German  organizations  are  the  Berlin  Philhar- 
monic Orchestra  and  the  orchestra  of  the  opera 
at  Munich.  The  Vienna  Philharmonic  is  cele- 
brated for  its  strings. 

In  France  the  progress  of  orchestral  playing 
received  its  first  impetus  from  the  labors  of 
Francois  Joseph  Gossec  (1733-1829),  whose  ex- 
traordinarily long  and  active  life  enabled  him  to 
see  not  only  the  blossom,  but  some  of  the  early 
fruit  of  his  efforts.  He  was  the  first  French 
composer  of  symphonies,  and  in  1770  founded 
the  "Concert  des  Amateurs."  He  did  much 
toward  developing  good  orchestral  playing  in 
Paris,  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  famous 
Francois  Antoine  Habeneck  (1781-1849),  who, 
in  1828,  founded  the  "  Socie'te'  des  Concerts  du 
Conservatoire." 

Orchestral  playing  has  never  reached  a  high 
141 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 


plane  in  England,  but  the  London  Philharmonic 
Society  has  an  important  history  because  of 
the  famous  works  written  for  it,  among  them 
symphonies  and  overtures  by  Cherubini,  Spohr's 
second  symphony,  Beethoven's  Ninth  Sym- 
phony, and  Mendelssohn's  Italian  symphony. 
In  America  orchestral  performances  have  al- 
ways been  popular  since  the  foundation  of  the 
New  York  Philharmonic  Society  in  1842.  The 
labors  of  such  admirable  conductors  as  Theo- 
dore Eisfeld,  Carl  Bergmann,  and,  most  of  all, 
Theodore  Thomas,  did  much  to  develop  a  high 
degree  of  skill  among  orchestral  performers  and 
a  wide  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the  public. 
The  debt  of  the  country  to  Mr.  Thomas  is  one 
that  it  will  carry  to  the  end  of  its  musical 
development.  The  foundation  of  the  Boston 
Symphony  Orchestra,  in  1880,  by  Colonel  Henry 
L.  Higginson,  of  Boston,  gave  the  United 
States  its  first  concert  orchestra  established  on 
a  permanent  basis,  and  the  organization  has 
come  to  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  leading  or- 
chestras of  the  world.  The  Chicago  Orches- 
tra, directed  by  Theodore  Thomas,  is  its  only 
rival  in  America. 

Nothing  more  excellently  pictures  the  con- 
ditions under  which  an  orchestra  comes  to  the 
perfection  of  its  work  than  a  few  words  in  one 
of  Schumann's  comments  on  music  in  Leipsic : 

243 


From  a  photograph  by  I- a  Ik. 

THEODORE   THOMAS. 


Qualities  of  Orchestral  Performance 

"  Before  we  take  leave  of  the  Gewandhaus  con- 
certs  for  half  a  year,"  he  says,  "  we  must  award 
a  crown  of  merit  to  the  forty  or  fifty  orchestral 
members.  We  have  no  solo-players  like  Brod 
in  Paris  or  Harper  in  London ;  but  even  these 
cities  can  scarcely  boast  such  fine,  united  play- 
ing. And  this  results  from  the  nature  of  cir- 
cumstances. Our  musicians  here  form  a  family ; 
they  see  each  other  and  practise  together  daily ; 
they  are  always  the  same,  so  that  they  are  able 
to  play  a  Beethoven  symphony  without  notes. 
Add  to  these  a  concert-master  who  can  con- 
duct such  scores  from  memory,  a  director  who 
knows  them  by,  and  reveres  them  at,  heart,  and 
the  crown  is  complete." 


PART  III 
How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 


XII 

Development  of  the  Conductor 

IT  is  not  so  easy  to  define  the  functions  of  the 
conductor  of  an  orchestra  as  it  may  seem  to 
be,  because  at  present  there  is  a  general  ten- 
dency to  exaggerate  one  element  of  his  labor, 
namely,  the  interpretative.  "  Readings  "  are 
the  order  of  the  day,  and  we  are  invited  to  con- 
sider Mr.  Paur's  reading  of  Beethoven's  C 
minor  symphony,  Mr.  Nikisch's  interpretation 
of  the  same,  and  again  Mr.  Gericke's,  and  to 
compare  them  one  with  another,  as  we  might 
compare  Mr.  Barnay's  performance  of  Hamlet 
with  that  of  Wilson  Barrett.  The  conductor's 
magnetism,  his  personality,  his  style,  even  the 
cut  of  his  cuffs  have  thrust  themselves  between 
the  public  and  the  immortal  works  of  the  mas- 
ters, until  it  seems  as  if  there  must  come  a 
reaction  which  will  drive  us  back  to  the 
ancient  time-beater.  Perhaps  it  will  be  advis- 
able, before  considering  conducting  in  the  ab- 
stract, to  trace  briefly  the  development  of  the 
conductor. 

J47 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  when  the  conductor 
made  his  appearance  in  music.  There  seems 
to  have  been  the  widest  diversity  in  the  customs 
of  different  places  and  different  times.  Jn  mod- 
ern music,  which  may  fairly  date  from  the  time 
when  vocal  and  instrumental  composition 
started  upon  lines  of  independent  development, 
namely,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  the  conductor  was  at  first  nothing 
more  than  a  leader.  He  was  one  of  the  per- 
formers whom  the  rest  followed.  His  function 
is  preserved  to-day  by  the  leader  of  the  college 
glee-club.  Yet  long  before  the  year  1600  there 
certainly  were  conductors  who  used  the  baton. 
An  ancient  manuscript  in  a  Parisian  library 
contains  an  illustration  (which  the  reader  will 
find  reproduced  in  Emil  Naumann's  "  History 
of  Music  ")  showing  Heinrich  von  Meissen,  a 
minnesinger  who  died  in  1318,  conducting  a 
choir  of  singers  and  players.  He  is  seated  on 
a  raised  platform  and  is  using  a  long  baton  in 
his  left  hand  and  the  extended  finger  of  his 
right.  His  attitude  and  facial  expression  clearly 
express  his  intent  to  guide  those  below  him,  or 
correct  someone  who  is  going  astray.  Two  or 
three  of  the  figures  in  the  choir  seem  to  be  re- 
peating his  beat. 

What  became  of  conductors  of  this  kind  be- 
tween 1318  and  1600  I  have  been  unable  to 

148 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

discover.  The  early  operatic  performances  in 
Italy,  however,  were  conducted  by  the  harpsi- 
chordist, who  played  the  chords  sustaining  the 
dry  recitative  and  led  the  rest  of  the  perform, 
ers  in  the  orchestral  passages.  This  method  of 
conducting  followed  Italian  opera  into  Germany 
and  France.  Lully's  works  were  conducted  in 
this  manner,  and  when  young  Pelham  Hum- 
phreys, one  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  King's 
Chapel,  returned  from  his  studies  in  France,  "a 
young  monsieur,"  as  Pepys  notes,  and  made  fun 
of  the  performances  of  his  former  companions 
because  they  could  not  keep  time,  he  must  have 
shown  them  how  his  master,  Lully,  conducted. 
At  any  rate,  the  conducting  of  operatic  per- 
formances at  the  harpsichord  was  common  in 
the  time  of  his  pupil,  Purcell,  and  when  Handel, 
who  had  been  writing  Italian  operas  for  the 
Germans,  went  to  London,  he,  too,  conducted 
his  own  works  while  sitting  at  the  harpsichord. 
Heinrich  Schiitz  must  certainly  have  learned 
this  method  of  conducting  when  he  went  down 
to  Italy  to  get  the  score  of  Peri's  ;i  Daphne  " 
for  the  delectation  of  the  Dresden  court,  evf  n 
if  he  had  not  known  it  before.  This  would  ac 
count  for  the  introduction  into  Germany  of  the 
Italian  method  of  opera  conducting,  and  it  was 
continued,  of  course,  at  Hamburg  under  Rein, 
hard  Keiser  and  afterward  under  Handel.  Suf« 
149 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

ficiently  numerous  pen -pictures  of  Handel 
have  come  down  to  us,  and  we  know  that  he 
conducted  the  performances  of  his  operas  in 
Germany  sitting  at  the  harpsichord. 

How  did  these  harpsichordists  conduct  ?  Un- 
doubtedly, sometimes  with  a  nod  of  the  head, 
sometimes  with  a  wave  of  the  hand,  and  occa- 
sionally, perhaps,  with  a  most  emphatic  stamp 
of  the  foot.  Not  a  little  light  is  thrown  upon 
the  various  methods  of  conducting  by  the  rec- 
ords of  the  practices  of  the  church  musicians. 
It  appears  that  even  in  the  days  of  Handel  and 
Bach  there  were  different  ways  of  conducting 
church  music.  Johann  Bahr,  concert-master  at 
Weissenfels,  says,  in  a  book  published  in  Nu- 
remberg in  1719,  that  "  one  man  conducts  with 
the  foot,  another  with  the  head,  a  third  with 
the  hand,  some  with  both  hands,  some  again 
take  a  roll  of  paper,  and  others  a  stick."  It  is 
perfectly  clear,  from  other  remarks  of  Bahr, 
that  these  different  methods  were  applied  to 
different  kinds  of  performances.  A  Nuremberg 
engraving,  published  certainly  before  1725, 
shows  a  music-conductor  with  a  roll  of  music 
in  each  hand  directing  the  performance  of  a 
motet  from  a  score.  There  is  an  inscription  in 
verse  which  shows  very  plainly  that  this  was  a 
real  conductor.  "  Silent  myself,  I  cause  the 
music  I  control,"  is  one  of  the  lines  whose  mean- 
150 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

ing  is  not  doubtful.  There  are  other  pictures, 
of  about  the  same  date,  which  show  the  church- 
music  conductor  standing  in  the  midst  of  ; 
group  of  singers  and  players  in  front  of  the 
organ  and  directing  with  a  roll  of  music.  In 
some  cases  the  leader  of  the  choir  used  a  violin, 
with  which  he  could  keep  the  singers  on  the 
pitch. 

But  it  seems  as  if  the  quiet  style  of  conduct- 
ing  at  the  harpsichord,  as  practised  in  the  op- 
era-houses, must  have  commended  itself  to  the 
German  church  musicians  as  eminently  suited 
to  the  sanctuary,  for,  after  1730,  the  con- 
ductors  of  sacred  music  ceased  to  stand  and 
beat  time  continually.  The  custom  of  conduct- 
ing all  kinds  of  performances  from  the  harpsi- 
chord spread.  Sometimes  the  time  was  indi- 
cated by  motions  of  the  hand,  at  others  by  the 
sound  of  the  instrument.  Thus,  in  Germany, 
undemonstrative  harpsichord  conducting  be- 
came popular,  while  in  ever-theatrical  France, 
where  the  eye  must  always  be  fed,  the  practice 
of  conducting  with  the  baton  became  general. 
This  led  to  the  scathing  remark  of  Rousseau : 
"  The  Opera  in  Paris  is  the  only  theatre  in 
Europe  where  they  beat  the  time  without 
keeping  it ;  in  all  other  places  they  keep  time 
without  beating  it."  The  influence  of  Hasse's 
conducting  of  the  Dresden  orchestra  had  much 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

to  do  with  the  common  adoption  of  the  harpsi- 
chord method  in  Germany.  In  the  diagram  of 
the  Dresden  orchestra  given  in  Chapter  XV. 
the  reader  will  see  that  there  were  two  harpsi- 
chords. The  conductor  sat  at  the  one  in  the 
centre;  the  player  who  performed  the  figured 
bass  part  sat  at  the  other. 

In  his  famous  "  Life  of  Bach,"  Dr.  Philip 
Spitta,  to  whose  indefatigable  labors  of  re- 
search I  am  indebted  for  the  above  information 
as  to  methods  of  church  conducting,  says: 
"  When  Bach  entered  on  his  duties  he  had  the 
harpsichord  in  the  Thomaskirche  [in  Leipsic], 
which  had  become  useless,  set  in  order  forth- 
with, and  got  the  Council  to  expend  the  sum  of 
six  thalers  a  year  upon  keeping  it  regularly 
tuned,  but  it  was  out  of  use  again  in  the  year 
1733."  In  regard  to  the  use  of  the  harpsichord 
for  conducting,  Dr.  Spitta  quotes  the  words  of 
Bach's  son,  Philipp  Emmanuel,  who  wrote : 

"  The  notes  of  the  clavier  [the  German  name 
for  any  instrument  of  the  piano  family],  which 
stands  in  the  middle,  surrounded  by  the  musi- 
cians, are  clearly  heard  by  all.  For  I  myself 
know  that  even  performances  on  a  large  scale, 
where  the  performers  are  far  apart,  and  in  which 
many  very  moderate  musicians  take  part  volun- 
tarily, can  be  kept  in  order  simply  by  the  tone 
of  the  harpsichord.  If  the  first  violinist  stands, 
152 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

as  he  should,  near  the  harpsichord,  it  is  diffi- 
cult for  any  confusion  to  ensue.  ...  If, 
however,  anybody  begins  to  hurry  or  drag  the 
time,  he  can  be  corrected  in  the  plainest  possi- 
ble way  by  means  of  the  clavier;  while  the 
other  instruments  have  enough  to  do  with  their 
own  parts  because  of  the  number  of  passages 
and  syncopations;  and  especially  the  parts 
which  are  in  tempo  rubato  by  this  means  get 
the  necessary  emphatic  up-beat  of  the  bar 
marked  for  them.  Lastly,  by  this  method — since 
the  musicians  are  not  hindered  by  the  noise  of 
the  clavier  from  perceiving  the  slightest  nu- 
ances of  time — the  pace  can  be  slightly  lessened, 
as  is  often  necessary ;  and  the  musicians  who 
stand  behind  or  near  the  clavier  have  the  beat 
of  the  bar  given  out  in  the  most  evident,  and 
consequently  the  most  emphatic,  way  before 
their  eyes  by  both  hands  at  once." 

These  words  are  singularly  enlightening  as 
to  the  exact  methods  and  advantages  of  harp- 
sichord conducting,  and  they  go  far  toward  ex- 
plaining the  reasons  why  this  method  survived 
as  long  as  it  did.  It  continued  to  be  used,  as 
we  shall  presently  see,  long  after  the  time-beater 
had  become  a  fixed  institution  and  even  in  con- 
junction with  his  work.  Undoubtedly,  this  was 
because  the  older  orchestral  players  had  be- 
come so  thoroughly  schooled  to  follow  the 

153 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 


harpsichordist  that  they  could  not  be  induced 
to  give  their  whole  attention  to  the  time-beater 
and  the  counting  of  their  own  rests.  Gradu- 
ally, however,  as  the  wind  choir  of  the  modern 
orchestra  increased  in  power,  the  harpsichord 
was  unable  to  make  itself  heard,  and  it  had  to 
give  way  to  a  method  of  conducting  which  ap- 
pealed wholly  to  the  eye.  It  was  doubtless  ow- 
ing to  the  continued  existence  of  old  musicians 
trained  in  the  early  school  that  for  a  time  the 
harpsichord  and  the  baton  were  employed  si- 
multaneously. It  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that  in 
some  instances  a  distinguished  composer,  whose 
work  was  undergoing  the  ordeal  of  a  first 
hearing,  was  invited  to  sit  at  the  harpsichord, 
where  he  pretended  much  and  did  little,  while 
his  presence  added  to  the  interest  of  the  public, 
and  someone  else  really  conducted  the  per- 
formance with  a  baton.  The  first  violin,  too, 
played  an  important  part  in  the  conducting 
of  an  orchestra,  so  much  so  that  to  this  day  he 
is  known  either  as  the  concert-master  or  the 
leader,  although  his  functions  have  wholly 
changed. 

At  one  time  he  was  the  only  conductor  that 
some  orchestras  had.  Part  of  the  time  he 
played,  leading  the  others  by  the  motions  of  his 
bow  and  by  raising  and  lowering  the  neck  of 
his  violin  on  the  beats.  Again  he  would  cease 
154 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

to  play  and  conduct  with  the  violin  bow.  He 
was  known  as  the  leader  of  the  orchestra,  and 
his  descendant  exists  in  the  contemporaneous 
theatre,  where  the  first  violinist  of  the  little 
orchestra  of  eight  or  ten  pieces  is  the  leader. 
Some  concert-goers  will  doubtless  recall  the 
fact  that  both  Johann  and  Eduard  Strauss  con- 
ducted their  dance-music  in  this  manner. 

In  Haydn's  day  the  performance  of  symphon- 
ic music  enlisted  both  harpsichordist  and  time- 
beater,  and  at  the  famous  London  concerts  for 
which  the  genial  master  composed  some  of  his 
best  symphonies,  he  himself  sat  at  the  harpsi- 
chord, while  Salomon,  the  manager  of  the  en- 
tertainments, beat  time.  That  a  similar  method 
should  have  been  employed  in  the  performance 
of  vocal  works  even  in  the  present  century  is 
not  surprising,  but  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  it 
was  applied  to  compositions  whose  scores  con- 
tain no  clavier  parts.  At  Vienna,  in  1808, 
Haydn's  "Creation"  was  performed  with  Kreu- 
zer  at  the  harpsichord  and  Salieri  conducting. 
In  1815  Beethoven's  "Mount  of  Olives"  was 
given  in  the  same  city  with  Umlauf  at  the  piano 
and  Wranitzky  conducting.  At  the  Berlin 
Singakadamie  Zelter  used  to  beat  time  while 
one  of  his  pupils  was  at  the  harpsichord.  The 
practice  of  conducting  from  the  piano,  even 
without  the  time-beater,  clung  tenaciously  to 
155 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

life,  for  it  is  on  record  that  Mendelssohn,  at  a 
concert  of  the  London  Philharmonic  Society  in 
the  Argyll  Rooms,  on  May  25,  1829,  conducted 
his  symphony  in  C  minor  from  a  piano.  It  may 
be  as  well  to  note  here  that  the  eminent  com- 
poser, Ludwig  Spohr,  in  1820  introduced  the 
modern  manner  of  conducting  in  England.  He 
stood  at  a  desk  at  the  front  of  the  stage  and  di- 
rected with  a  baton.  He  describes  in  his  auto- 
biography the  general  opposition  of  the  Philhar- 
monic musicians  which  he  had  to  overcome  in 
order  to  begin  this  practice.  "  Henceforth,"  he 
says,  "  no  one  was  ever  again  seen  seated  at  the 
piano  during  the  performance  of  symphonies 
and  overtures."  He  was  not  informed  of  Men- 
delssohn's piano  conducting. 
\>  We  have  now  come  to  the  period  when  the 
mere  time-beater  began  to  give  way  to  the  in- 
terpreting conductor,  the  director  who  invites 
you  to  consider  his  especial  "reading  "  of  this 
or  that  work  and  be  wise.  Before  we  leave  the 
time-beater,  however,  let  me  remind  the  reader 
that  his  function  is  by  no  means  to  be  despised, 
and  in  the  case  of  some  suave  and  gentle  classi- 
cal works  it  would  be  well  if  he  presided  over 
the  performances  of  some  of  our  present  orches- 
tras. Berlioz  has  said :  "  The  talent  of  the 
beater  of  time,  without  demanding  very  high 
musical  attainments,  is  nevertheless  sufficiently 
156 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

difficult  to  obtain ;  and  very  few  persons  really 
possess  it.  The  signs  that  a  conductor  should 
make — although  generally  simple — neverthe- 
less become  complicated  under  certain  circum- 
stances by  the  division  and  even  the  subdivis- 
ion of  the  time  of  the  bar."  Berlioz  has  given 
us,  in  the  concluding  chapter  of  his  admirable 
work  on  orchestration,  an  essay  on  the  art  of 
the  time-beater,  which  is  well  worth  reading. 
It  is  sufficient  to  say  here  that  the  old-fashioned 
time-beater's  work  was  complete  when  he  indi- 
cated the  correct  tempo,  and  plainly  marked 
the  beginning  and  necessary  subdivisions  of 
each  bar. 

When  the  composer  conducted  his  own 
works,  as  was  so  often  the  case  in  the  earlier 
days  of  symphonic  music,  there  was  no  need 
of  an  interpretative  conductor.  But  when  the 
composer  had  long  passed  from  the  land  of  the 
living  and  the  traditions  of  his  readings  had 
become  obscured,  or  when  his  works  were  to 
be  introduced  in  a  foreign  country — as  in  the 
case  of  Beethoven's  symphonies  in  France — 
the  interpretative  conductor  became  a  neces- 
sity. Furthermore,  when  the  art  of  conduct- 
ing began  to  be  recognized  as  a  specialty,  it 
was  conceded  that  composers  were  generally 
poor  conductors  of  their  own  works,  and  the 
orchestral  director  became  a  distinct  species. 
157 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

Hector  Berlioz,  for  example,  could  not  play 
any  instrument  save  the  guitar,  and  Richard 
Wagner  was  only  a  very  poor  pianist ;  yet  both 
were  admirable  conductors. 

The  interpreting  conductor  came  into  ex- 
istence in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  any  one  man  was  the 
first  representative  of  the  species,  but  rather 
that  it  was  one  of  the  first-fruits  of  the  ro- 
mantic movement,  that  healthy  renaissance  of 
musical  emotion.  Both  German  capellmeisters 
and  French  directors  had  occupied  themselves 
wholly  with  the  regulation  of  the  technics  of 
the  orchestra,  and  if  the  tempo  was  about  right 
and  the  instruments  kept  well  together  and 
gave  the  broader  effects  of  light  and  shade, 
they  were  satisfied.  But  two  or  three  pro- 
gressive conductors  insisted  upon  further  re- 
finement of  orchestral  performance. 

Johann  Karl  Stamitz  (1719-61),  director  of 
the  Mannheim  orchestra,  and  Frangois  Joseph 
Gossec  (1733-1829),  founder  of  the  Concert  des 
Amateurs  in  Paris,  \were  the  two  conductors 
who  carried  orchestral  technics  up  to  the  point 
at  which  genuine  interpretative  work  became 
possible  by  reason  of  the  refinement  of  the 
means  of  expression.  It  was  in  studying  th, 
means  of  orchestral  expression  that  these  con- 
ductors gradually  approached  the  questions  o{ 

158 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

interpretation.  As  they  polished  the  phras- 
ing of  their  orchestras,  they  began  to  inquire 
whether  they  were  applying  their  nuances  in 
the  proper  places,  and  so  they  advanced  tow- 
ard that  point  at  which  the  interpreting  con- 
ductor  sits  down  before  a  score  to  study  out 
a  complete  plan  of  performance  deduced  from 
his  conception  of  the  intent  of  the  composer. 
Gossec  founded  the  Concert  des  Amateurs  in 
1770  and  was  himself  the  conductor.  Sym- 
phonies by  Toeschi,  Vanhall,  Stamitz  and  other 
composers  were  produced,  and  the  conductor 
had  at  any  rate  to  decide  the  tempo  and  place 
the  broader  dynamic  effects  according  to  his 
own  conception,  for  these  matters  were  not 
carefully  marked  in  the  scores  as  they  are  now. 
Before  Gossec's  death  the  modern  interpre- 
tative conductor  had  made  his  appearance. 
Spohr,  Mendelssohn,  and  Weber  were  early  rep- 
resentatives of  the  species.  All  three  of  them 
occupied  at  different  times  posts  of  the  highest 
importance  in  the  department  of  conducting. 
Spohr  at  Cassel,  Mendelssohn  in  the  Leipsic 
Gewandhaus,  and  Weber  at  the  Dresden  Opera 
were,  without  doubt,  interpreting  conductors. 
They  advanced  without  hesitation  beyond  the 
mere  study  of  orchestral  technics  to  the  study 
of  the  correct  style  and  feeling  in  the  perform- 
ance. Spohr  was  an  enthusiast  on  the  subject 

159 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

of  Mozart's  music,  and  he  conducted  Mozart's 
symphonies  according  to  his  own  ideas. 
Weber  revived  old  German  operas  and  treated 
them  as  he  believed  their  composers  would 
have  treated  them.  Mendelssohn  was  the  res- 
urrector  of  Bach's  Passion  music,  which  had 
lain  buried  for  a  century,  and  he  was  not  silent 
as  to  his  conception  of  its  proper  performance. 
The  most  conspicuous  figure  among  the 
early  interpreting  conductors  was  unquestion- 
ably Frangois  Antoine  Habeneck  (1781-1849), 
the  founder  of  the  Societe  des  Concerts  du 
Conservatoire.  Habeneck  was  compelled  to 
be  an  interpreter.  He  was  a  conductor  pure 
and  simple.  He  had  no  gospel  of  his  own  to 
preach,  but  he  aimed  at  making  the  sympho- 
nies of  Beethoven  known  in  France,  and  he 
was  thus  forced  to  become  an  interpreter  of 
the  mighty  Ludwig's  thought.  He  not  only 
brought  the  Conservatoire  orchestra  to  a  re- 
markably high  point  of  technical  ability,  but 
he  conducted  Beethoven's  music  with  a  force, 
a  sentiment,  a  nobility  of  style  that  carried  con- 
viction with  it  and  compelled  Paris  to  acknowl- 
edge the  genius  of  the  German  master.  Berlioz, 
himself  a  skilful  conductor,  has  rendered  hom- 
age to  Habeneck's  powers,  and  there  is  abun- 
dant testimony  that  he  was  the  Richter  or  the 
Gericke  (or  whom  you  please)  of  his  day. 
1 60 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

The  list  of  conductors  of  the  Leipsic  Gewand- 
haus  concerts  shows  conclusively  that,  so  far 
as  they  were  concerned,  interpretative  conduct- 
ing began  with  Mendelssohn.  His  predecessors 
were  merely  good  leaders ;  his  successors  have 
all  been  men  of  talent,  such  as  Ferdinand  Hiller, 
Julius  Rietz,  Neils  Gade,  and  Karl  Reinecke. 
In  France  it  is  easy  to  follow  the  succession 
of  great  interpretative  conductors.  Habeneck 
conducted  the  concerts  of  the  Conservatoire 
until  1848.  In  1851  Jules  Etienne  Pasdeloup 
founded  and  conducted  the  first  concert  of  the 
Societ6  des  Jeunes  Artistes  du  Conservatoire. 
In  1873  Colonne  began  his  career  as  a  conductor, 
and  in  the  same  year  Lamoureux  made  himself 
a  place.  These  men  are  admirable  representa- 
tives of  the  genus  conductor  as  known  in  our 

day. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  art  of  interpreta- 
tive conducting  received  a  strong  impulse  in 
Germany  from  the  work  of  Richard  Wagner, 
who  entered  upon  his  career  as  a  director  at 
the  Magdeburg  Theatre  in  the  autumn  of  1834. 
It  was  not  so  much  by  his  individual  labors  as 
a  conductor  that  Wagner  aided  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  interpreting  art  as  by  his  fiery  cas- 
tigation  of  the  mechanical  and  slovenly  work  of 
careless  capellmeisters,  and  his  luminous  words 
upon  the  right  method  of  directing  orchestral 

161 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

performances.  In  the  spread  of  his  doctrines 
he  was  mightily  aided,  first  by  the  admirable 
conducting  of  Liszt,  and  afterward  by  that  of 
Hans  von  Billow,  without  doubt,  one  of  the 
best  conductors  who  ever  set  foot  on  the  plat- 
form. His  readings  of  Wagner  were,  of  course, 
authoritative,  and  his  interpretations  of  Beet- 
hoven carried  with  them  so  much  conviction 
that  they  were  regarded  as  equally  so.  Dr. 
Hans  Richter,  who  came  into  prominence  in 
1875,  carried  forward  the  work,  and  Germany 
has  since  produced  a  number  of  the  most  emi- 
nent interpreting  conductors.  Indeed,  there 
can  be  no  question  that  the  best  representatives 
of  the  class  have  been  and  still  are  German  or 
Austrian,  including  Hungarian  in  the  latter. 

In  the  United  States  all  the  eminent  con- 
ductors have  been  men  whose  early  musical 
nourishment  was  obtained  in  Germany.  The 
conductors  of  the  Philharmonic  Society  of  New 
York  began  with  Theodore  Eisfeld,  who  came 
into  notice  in  the  season  of  1849-50.  Subse- 
quently he  shared  his  labors  with  Carl  Berg- 
mann,  who  became  the  sole  conductor  in  1865 
and  remained  in  office  till  the  close  of  the  season 
of  1875-76.  Mr.  Bergmann  was  an  interpreting 
conductor  and  a  determined  advocate  of  certain 
advances  in  music.  Once,  when  he  had  been 
giving  his  hearers  a  good  deal  of  Wagner,  some- 

162 


Copyright  by  Elliott  fr  Fry. 


HANS   RICHTER. 


Development  of  the  Conductor 

one  expostulated  with  him,  saying,  "  But,  Mr. 
Bergmann,  the  people  don't  like  Wagner." 
"  Don't  like  Vagner !  "  answered  Bergmann  ; 
"den  dey  must  hear  him  till  dey  do!" 

Mr.  Bergmann's  successor  was  Leopold  Dam- 
rosch,  who  conducted  the  Philharmonic  only  a 
year,  but  left  an  imperishable  record  as  the  found- 
er of  the  Oratorio  Society  and  the  regenerator 
of  German  opera  in  New  York.  Of  the  labors 
of  Theodore  Thomas  and  Anton  Seidl  it  is  un- 
necessary to  speak.  As  interpreting  conductors 
they  have  not  been  excelled  in  America  in  their 
especial  fields.  In  Boston,  Carl  Zerrahn,  Georg 
Henschel,  Wilhelm  Gericke,  Arthur  Nikisch, 
and  Emil  Paur  did  notable  work  as  interpreting 
conductors.  The  tendency  in  our  day,  indeed, 
has  been  to  do  a  little  too  much  interpreting, 
and  as  a  result  the  conductor  has  too  frequent- 
ly distracted  attention  from  the  music  to  him- 
self. The  public,  prone  to  run  after  a  virtuoso 
of  any  kind,  has  readily  bowed  the  knee  at  the 
shrine  of  the  baton-wielder,  and  we  have  be- 
held the  curious  spectacle  of  people  going  not 
to  hear  Beethoven  or  Wagner,  but  Nikisch  or 
Seidi. 


163 


XIII 

Functions  of  the  Conductor 

"T^ERHAPS  nothing  connected  with  the  or. 

1  chestra  is  more  completely  misunderstood 
by  amateurs  than  the  functions  of  the  conduct- 
or. I  remember  that  in  the  days  of  a  certain 
distinguished  orchestral  director  there  were 
two  of  his  ardent  admirers  who  always  occu- 
pied seats  in  the  front  row,  just  a  little  to  his 
left.  There  they  sat,  with  rapt  expressions  on 
their  faces,  gazing  at  the  conductor.  They 
never  took  their  eyes  off  him,  and  I  am  morally 
certain  they  had  finally  come  to  think  that  the 
whole  of  every  composition  emanated  from 
the  swaying  end  of  his  baton.  They  overrated 
the  importance  of  the  conductor,  but  not  so 
much  more  than  the  average  concert -goer, 
The  first  and  radical  blunder  made  by  the 
typical  music-lover  is  in  supposing  that  the 
work  of  a  conductor  is  done  at  the  perform- 
ance. In  some  mysterious  way  this  man  with 
a  stick  in  his  hand  is  supposed  to  hypnotize, 
magnetize,  or  just  vulgarly  scare  the  musi- 
164 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


cians  into  playing  certain  music  according  to 
impulses  which  have  just  developed  in  his 
breast.  I  have  heard  people  coming  out  of  a 
concert-room  say  such  things  as  these  : 

"  I  thought  Mr.  Seidl  was  very  cold  to-night, 
didn't  you?" 

"  Yes,  he  was,  indeed.  That's  why  I  liked 
Nikisch  so  much ;  he  always  kept  the  orches- 
tra on  fire." 

There  is  a  substratum  of  truth  in  all  this 
kind  of  talk.  A  conductor  of  cold  tempera- 
ment will  not  give  highly  colored  readings,  nor 
will  he  excite  enthusiasm  in  his  orchestra.  A 
conductor  of  poetic  feeling  will  conduct  poet- 
ically and  he  will  make  his  orchestra  play  so. 
But  neither  of  them  accomplishes  his  result 
suddenly  and  spontaneously  at  the  perform- 
ance. All  that  a  conductor  does  at  a  per- 
formance is  to  remind  his  players  of  what  he 
told  them  at  rehearsal.  It  could  not  be  other- 
wise, for  the  beat  of  the  baton  and  the  utter- 
ance  of  the  sound  by  the  instruments  is  almost 
simultaneous. 

To  remind  the  musicians  of  what  he  has  al- 
ready instructed  them  to  do,  the  conductor 
employs  certain  pantomimic  motions  and  facial 
expressions,  some  of  which  have  been  so  gen- 
erally used  that  they  are  conventional,  while 
others  are,  of  course,  peculiar  to  the  individual. 

165 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

Everyone  knows,  for  example,  that  Hans  von 
Billow  was  fond  of  conducting  with  an  eye  to 
effect  upon  the  audience,  and  that  some  of  his 
pantomime  was  comic.  In  a  diminuendo  I  have 
seen  him  stoop  lower  and  lower  till  he  was  al- 
most hidden  behind  the  music-stand,  and  at  a 
sudden  forte  he  would  spring  up  again  like  a 
jack-in-the-box.  No  one  can  ever  forget  those 
spasmodic,  bur  tremendously  eloquent,  jerks  of 
the  chin  with  its  long  beard  which  Dr.  Leo- 
pold Damrosch  used  to  aim  at  his  men  when 
there  was  a  staccato  chord  to  be  played.  Who 
does  not  recall  the  eloquent  hands  of  Nikisch 
and  the  equally  eloquent  cuffs  of  Seidl  ?  Thom- 
as, with  his  occasional  sidewise  cant  of  the  head, 
and  Richter,  with  the  apparently  increasing 
confusion  of  his  hair  and  his  beard,  also  come 
back  to  my  memories  of  pictorial  peculiarities 
of  conductors. 

Besides  these  peculiarities,  conductors  have 
their  own  habits  in  the  use  of  the  baton,  and 
orchestras  must  necessarily  become  accus- 
tomed to  them  in  order  that  they  may  not  be 
.nisled  at  critical  moments.  For  it  does,  in- 
deed, happen  sometimes  at  the  public  perform- 
ances that  things  go  wrong,  and  then  the  con- 
ductor must  contrive  to  set  them  straight ;  and: 
he  must  do  it  entirely  by  his  pantomime,  for 
the  privilege  of  the  rehearsal,  to  stop  the  or- 
166 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


chestra  and  begin  again,  is  no  longer  his.  At 
the  rehearsal  he  can  tell  what  he  desires,  but  in 
the  concert  he  must  go  on.  It  is  at  the  rehears- 
al, however,  that  the  real  work  of  the  conduct- 
or is  done.  At  the  performance  he  must  con- 
fine himself  to  beating  time,  to  indicating  to 
those  players  who  have  rests  when  they  are  to 
begin  again,  to  a  warning  look  here  in  case  a 
part  is  played  too  loudly,  or  to  an  encouraging 
nod  there  in  case  one  is  not  played  loudly 
enough. 

I  have  often  heard  persons  not  unfamiliar 
with  concerts  declare  that  a  conductor  was  of 
no  use  because  the  players  never  looked  at 
him.  This  is  a  rather  large  statement.  The 
players  do  not  look  at  the  conductor  all  the 
time,  because  they  are  obliged  to  occupy  them- 
selves chiefly  with  reading  music,  but  they 
look  at  him  frequently,  and  they  do  so  invari- 
ably at  essential  places.  Furthermore,  they 
always  see  him  out  of  the  corners  of  their  eyes, 
as  the  saying  goes,  while  they  are  reading  the 
pages  before  them. 

The  function  of  a  conductor,  as  it  stands  to- 
day, can  best  be  understood  by  applying  to  him 
the  definition  given  at  the  beginning  of  this 
book.  The  orchestra  is  an  instrument  upon 
which  he  performs.  Hector  Berlioz,  the  famous 
French  composer,  said  that  the  only  instrument 
167 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

upon  which  he  could  play  was  the  orchestra, 
and  in  that  he  resembled  Richard  Wagner,  who 
was  an  indifferent  pianist,  and  Anton  Seidl,  who 
was  a  very  bad  one.  The  conductor  plays 
upon  an  orchestra,  not  by  waving  a  baton  and 
magnetizing  his  men,  but  by  carefully  instruct- 
ing them  at  rehearsal  as  to  what  he  desires  them 
to  do,  and  by  going  over  it  and  over  it  again 
till  the  execution  of  his  design  is  perfected.  A 
conductor,  then,  must  come  to  the  rehearsal 
with  a  completely  prepared  plan  of  interpreta- 
tion. He  must  know  the  score  thoroughly.  He 
must  have  analyzed  every  measure.  He  must 
be  in  the  same  position  as  the  skilled  theatrical 
stage-manager  who  has  planned  every  bit  of 
"  stage  business  "  for  a  new  play  before  he  goes 
to  the  first  rehearsal. 

At  the  rehearsal  he  must  explain  his  wishes 
to  the  men,  and  play  through  each  movement 
of  a  symphony  piece-meal  before  he  undertakes 
to  go  through  it  without  a  stop.  A  judicious 
conductor  makes  no  attempt  to  put  a  poetic 
explanation  before  his  orchestra.  He  works 
entirely  on  the  technics  of  the  performance,  and 
leaves  the  temperament  and  enthusiasm  of  his 
men  to  do  the  rest.  A  conductor  once  went 
from  another  city  to  Boston  to  conduct  an 
orchestra  at  the  first  appearance  in  this  country 
of  an  eminent  pianist,  whose  ptice  de  resistance 

168 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


was  to  be  Liszt's  E  flat  concerto.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  scherzo  there  are  some  lightly  trip- 
ping notes  for  the  triangle,  which  the  player 
struck  too  heavily  to  please  the  conductor's 
fancy.  He  rapped  with  his  baton  to  stop  the 
orchestra. 

"  Sir."  he  said,  gravely,  addressing  the  trian- 
gle player,  "those  notes  should  sound  like  a 
blue-bell  struck  by  a  fairy." 

Whereupon  the  whole  body  of  instrumental- 
ists burst  into  uncontrollable  laughter.  I  told 
this  story  subsequently  to  a  New  York  musi- 
cian, a  member  of  Theodore  Thomas's  orches- 
tra, and  he  looked  so  amazed  that  I  said : 

"  But  doesn't  Mr.  Thomas  talk  to  you  at  re- 
hearsal ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes !    Oh,  certainly ! "  was  the  reply. 

"  Well,  what  does  he  say  ?  " 

"  He  says  '  D n ! '  " 

Richard  Wagner,  who  was  nothing  if  not 
polemic,  wrote  a  book  on  conducting,  in  which 
there  are  some  pregnant  assertions,  as  there  are 
in  all  his  writings.  He  says:  "  The  whole  duty 
of  a  conductor  is  comprised  in  his  ability  always 
to  indicate  the  right  tempo.  His  choice  of 
tempi  will  show  whether  he  understands  the 
piece  or  not.  With  good  players  again  the  true 
tempo  induces  correct  phrasing  and  expression, 
and  conversely,  with  a  conductor,  the  idea  of 

169 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

appropriate  phrasing  and  expression  will  induce 
the  conception  of  the  true  tempo."  There  is 
an  essential  truth  in  this  statement,  but  its 
writer  did  not  add  those  corollaries  which  are 
necessary  to  constitute  the  whole  truth,  espe- 
cially for  the  amateur.  The  passage  which  im- 
mediately precedes  the  above  statement  ex- 
plains why  Wagner  looked  upon  the  tempo  as 
the  most  important  matter  for  the  conductor  to 
decide.  He  says  :  "  In  the  days  of  my  youth 
orchestral  pieces  at  the  celebrated  Leipsic  Ge- 
wandhaus  concerts  were  not  conducted  at  all ; 
they  were  simply  played  through  under  the 
leadership  of  Concertmeister  Mathai,  like  over- 
tures  and  entr'actes  at  a  theatre."  Such  per- 
formances annoyed  and  discouraged  Wagner ; 
but  in  1839  he  got  a  valuable  lesson  from  hearing 
the  Conservatoire  orchestra  of  Paris  rehearse 
a  Beethoven  symphony  under  Habeneck.  "  The 
scales  fell  from  my  eyes,"  he  says  ;  "  I  came  to 
understand  the  value  of  correct  execution,  and 
the  secret  of  a  good  performance.  The  orches- 
tra had  learned  to  look  for  Beethoven's  melody 
in  every  bar — that  melody  which  the  worthy 
Leipsic  musicians  had  failed  to  discover ;  and 
the  orchestra  sang  that  melody.  This  was  the 
secret."  A  little  farther  on  he  says :  "  The 
French  idea  of  playing  an  instrument  well  is  to 
be  able  to  sing  well  upon  it.  And  (as  already 
170 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


said)  that  superb  orchestra  sang  the  symphony. 
The  possibility  of  its  being  well  sung  implies 
that  the  true  tempo  had  been  found;  and  this 
was  the  second  point  which  impressed  me  at 
the  time.  Old  Habeneck  was  not  the  medium 
of  any  abstract  sesthetical  inspiration — he  was 
devoid  of  genius ;  but  he  found  the  right  tempo 
while  persistently  fixing  the  attention  of  his 
orchestra  upon  the  Melos*  of  the  symphony. 
The  right  comprehension  of  the  Melos  is  the 
sole  guide  to  the  true  tempo." 

These  words  of  Wagner's  are  excellent,  but 
they  may  convey  an  exaggerated  conception  of 
the  case  to  an  amateur.  It  is  beyond  dispute 
that  if  the  tempo  is  incorrect,  the  performance 
must  inevitably  be  weak  or  utterly  bad ;  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  when  the  tempo  is  right, 
all  will  be  satisfactory.  Nevertheless,  it  is  true 
that  the  first  and  most  important  duty  of  the 
conductor  is  to  decide  the  tempo,  and  that  he 
can  only  do  by  a  complete  comprehension  of 
the  musical  character  of  the  composition.  In 
music  written  since  Beethoven's  day  the  con- 
ductor has  something  to  guide  him  in  the  mat- 
ter of  tempo,  as  I  shall  presently  show  ;  but  in 
earlier  compositions  he  will  find  only  such  gen- 
eral terms  as  allegro,  adagio,  or  andante.  He 

*  Melody  in  all  it*  aspects. 
171 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

will  not  even  discover  such  attempts  at  specifi- 
cation as  andante  con  moto,  allegro  pesante,  or 
presto  ma  non  troppo. 

These  directions  are  not  sufficiently  precise. 
Wagner  himself  tells  how  he  wrote  "  Massig  " 
(moderate)  in  the  score  of  "  Das  Rheingold," 
with  the  result  that  the  drama  took  three  hours 
under  the  opera  conductor.  "  To  match  this," 
he  adds,  "  I  have  been  informed  that  the  over- 
ture to  '  Tannhauser,"  which,  when  I  conducted 
it  at  Dresden,  used  to  last  12  minutes,  now 
lasts  20."  Wagner  notes  that  Sebastian  Bach 
did  not  customarily  indicate  the  tempo  at  all, 
"  which  in  a  truly  musical  sense  is  perhaps 
best."  But  to  leave  all  movements  without 
tempo  marks  would  be  to  assume  that  all  con- 
ductor's were  truly  gifted.  Since  Beethoven's 
latter  days  it  has  been  the  custom  of  composers 
to  indicate  the  correct  tempo  by  what  is  known 
as  the  metronome  mark. 

A  metronome  is  an  instrument  which  can  be 
set  to  tick  off  with  a  pendulum  any  number  of 
beats  from  forty  to  two  hundred  and  eight  a 
minute.  A  composer  desiring  to  indicate  a 
tempo  uses  a  formula  like  this :  M.  M.  F  =  78. 
The  letters  M.  M.  mean  Maelzel's  Metronome 
(the  instrument).  The  note  (in  this  case  a  minim) 
means  that  the  beats  of  the  pendulum  are  to  be 
regarded  as  representing  minims,  crotchets,  or 

172 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


quavers,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  figure  indi- 
cates the  number  of  beats  per  minute.  In  the 
above  formula  the  composition  would  probably 
be  one  written  in  two-fourth  time,  that  is,  with 
one  minim  to  a  bar,  and  the  metronome  mark 
would  indicate  that  seventy-eight  minims,  and 
hence  in  this  case  seventy-eight  bars,  were  to 
be  played  each  minute. 

A  metronome  mark  must  not  be  understood 
as  requiring  a  rigid  adherence  to  its  prescrip- 
tion in  every  bar  of  a  movement.  It  is  simply 
a  method  of  expressing  the  general  rate  of 
progress.  A  conductor  could  not  count  every 
bar  by  the  metronome  without  abandoning  all 
attempts  at  accelerandi  or  ritardandi,  and  gen- 
erally reducing  his  performance  to  a  mathemati- 
cal state  of  rectangularity.  All  flexibility,  ele- 
gance, and  nuance  would  disappear  from  such 
a  rendering. 

For  dance-music  played  at  a  ball,  strict  ad-  * 
herence  to  the  metronome  mark  throughout 
a  composition   would   be  admissible ;    and  it 
would  be  really  desirable  in  the  case  of  a  mili 
tary   march,   in   which    the    tactics   prescribe 
the  cadence  as  one  hundred  and  twenty  stepc 
a  minute;  but  it  is  not  to  be  tolerated  in  ar- 
tistic  concert  music.    The  metronome   mark 
establishes  the  general  movement,  and  that  is 
all. 


flow  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

Any  music-lover  who  desires  to  find  out  the 
right  tempo  of  a  metronomed  composition  can 
do  so  by  using  a  watch  with  a  second  hand.  If 
he  times  the  number  of  measures  to  be  played 
in  five  or  ten  seconds,  he  can  get  at  the  tem- 
po. Similarly,  he  can  "  hold  the  watch "  on 
a  conductor  in  the  performance  of  any  piece 
with  an  established  tempo.  Here  again, 
however,  he  must  beware  of  exaggerated  ac- 
curacy. 

If  the  metronome  mark,  for  example,  is  a 
dotted  crotchet  equal  to  104,  as  in  the  allegro 
of  the  first  movement  of  Beethoven's  Seventh 
Symphony,  and  the  conductor  takes  the  tempo 
at  108  or  109,  there  is  no  ground  for  serious 
complaint.  But  if  he  should  take  it  at  134,  as  I 
once  heard  it  taken  by  an  eminent  conductor, 
the  music-lover  has  ground  for  a  vigorous  pro- 
test. The  reader  might  amuse  himself  and  get 
an  immense  amount  of  suggestive  information 
by  playing  some  well-known  compositions  at 
exaggerated  tempi.  He  would  speedily  be 
convinced  that  Wagner  was  right  in  believing 
that  the  chief  duty  of  the  conductor  was  to  as- 
certain the  correct  tempo. 

But  Wagner  is  not  quite   explicit  enough 

when  he  says  that  this  is  the  conductor's  whole 

duty.     The  whole  duty  of  the  conductor  is  to 

regulate  every  item  of  the  orchestral  perform- 

174 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


ance.  It  must  be  done  according  to  his  de- 
sign. You  may  say  that  this  prevents  all  indi- 
vidual warmth  on  the  part  of  the  players,  but 
it  need  not  do  so.  The  conductor  is  the  stage- 
manager;  the  instrumentalists  are  the  actors. 
They  play  their  parts  as  the  conductor  tells 
them  to  play  them  ;  but  that  need  not  prevent 
them  from  entering  fully  into  the  spirit  of  the 
work. 

The  conductor's  conception  of  a  composition 
is  to  be  revealed  through  the  performance  by 
means  of  the  distributions  of  light  and  shade, 
the  relative  importance  given  to  the  outer  and 
inner  voices  of  the  score,  by  the  placing  of  the 
climaxes  of  force  and  speed,  and  by  the  de< 
tailed  accentuation  of  every  phrase.  It  is  at 
the  rehearsals  that  the  conductor  imparts  to  the 
men  of  his  orchestra  his  wishes  in  these  matters, 
and  causes  them  to  go  over  and  over  certain 
passages  till  they  are  played  to  his  satisfaction. 
He  cannot  do  any  of  this  at  a  performance. 
There  he  can  only  beat  time,  and  in  doing  so 
remind  his  men,  as  I  have  already  said,  of  what 
he  told  them  at  the  rehearsals. 

The  conductor  must  see  to  it  that  significant 
passages  allotted  to  instruments  not  playing  the 
leading  melody  are  brought  out.  Many  of  the 
most  beautiful  effects  of  orchestral  composi- 
tions are  contrapuntal,  and  they  are  too  often 

1 73 


How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

lost  through  the  incapacity  or  negligence  of 
conductors.  It  requires  close  and  sympathetic 
study  of  a  score  to  find  these  bits.  Who  can 
ever  forget  how  eloquently  they  were  all  made 
to  speak  in  the  Wagner  dramas  by  Anton  Seidl, 
and  that,  too,  without  ever  overbalancing  the 
voices  of  the  singers?  The  whole  warp  and 
woof  of  the  Wagner  scores  is  polyphonic ;  the 
motives  cross  and  recross  one  another  in  a 
never-ceasing  double,  triple,  or  quadruple  coun- 
terpoint ;  and  to  give  each  its  proper  weight 
in  the  scale  of  force,  requires,  on  the  part 
of  a  conductor,  complete  knowledge,  perfect 
appreciation,  and  absolute  command  of  his 
forces. 

In  concluding  the  discussion  of  this  topic  let 
me  add  that  the  conductor  is  responsible  for 
the  general  excellence  of  the  work  of  his  or- 
chestra in  its  fundamental  qualities.  He  must 
see  that  the  balance  of  tone  is  preserved,  by 
preventing  one  choir  from  playing  too  loudly 
to  the  detriment  of  another.  He  must  insist 
upon  proper  bowing  by  the  strings  and  equally 
proper  blowing  by  the  wind.  And  he  must 
persistently  drill  his  orchestra  in  precision  and 
unanimity  until  these  things  become  automatic, 
like  the  attack  of  a  good  singer.  He  is  one  of 
the  princes  in  the  kingdom  of  music,  this  man 
who  turns  his  back  upon  us  all  that  he  may  play 

176 


Functions  of  the  Conductor 


with  his  little  stick  upon  this  hundred-voiced 
instrument ;  and  if  sometimes  we  lose  ourselves 
in  hysterical  wonder  at  the  results  which  he 
produces,  and  come  to  think  that  the  baton  is  a 
magician's  wand,  perhaps  we  are  not  so  much 
to  blame  after  all. 


PART  IV 
How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


XIV 
From  Peri  to  Handel 

HPHE  orchestra  of  to-day  is  the  outcome  of  a 
1  long  series  of  developments.  In  a  gen- 
eral manner  it  may  be  said  that  the  first  com- 
binations of  instruments  were  without  special 
purpose.  The  reader  should  bear  in  mind  that 
for  several  centuries  the  whole  labor  of  artistic 
composers  was  directed  toward  the  production 
of  unaccompanied  church  music.  The  centu- 
ries preceding  the  seventeenth  produced  little, 
if  any,  purely  instrumental  music.  There  were 
some  compositions  for  clavichord,  one  of  the 
precursors  of  the  piano,  and  many  for  the  organ ; 
but  these  were  wholly  modelled  on  the  great 
contrapuntal  choral  works  of  the  church.  The 
Style  was  similar,  and  the  method  of  develop- 
ment of  musical  ideas  was  the  same. 

When  these  old  composers  first  wrote  for 
small  combinations  of  instruments,  they  pro- 
duced works  which  could  be  sung  just  as  readily 
as  they  could  be  played  ;  and,  indeed,  it  was 
not  uncommon  for  them  to  write  over  their 

181 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


compositions,  "  Da  cantare  e  sonare  " — "  to  sing 
or  to  play."  When  the  thing  was  sung  it  was 
"cantata,"  and  when  it  was  played  it  was 
"  sonata."  But  these  early  "  sonatas  "  were  in 
no  respect  like  those  of  Beethoven. 

The  manner  of  composing  for  the  orchestra 
naturally  developed  side  by  side  with  an  appre- 
ciation of  the  true  functions  and  relations  of 
the  various  instruments.  It  is  impossible  to 
separate  the  two  processes.  Consider  that 
composers  had  for  centuries  written  only  for 
the  human  voice  heard  in  masses,  and  you  will 
readily  perceive  that  it  must  have  taken  some 
time  for  them  to  discover  that  melodic  ideas 
suitable  for  singing  were  not  always  adapted  to 
the  utterance  of  instruments.  After  the  dis- 
covery of  that  fact  there  would  necessarily 
follow  a  realization  that  the  method  of  develop- 
ing musical  ideas  in  compositions  for  voices  was 
not  the  best  one  for  instrumental  writing.  And 
then  would  come  also  a  perception  of  the  fact 
that  certain  melodic  ideas  were  best  suited  to 
certain  instruments ;  that  what  a  horn  could 
utter  most  eloquently,  was  enfeebled  if  in- 
trusted to  an  oboe,  and  that  a  thought  which 
was  poetic  in  the  pallid,  moonlight  accents  of 
the  flute,  became  vulgar  if  pealed  out  by  a  trom- 
bone. 

Modern  orchestration  owes  the  kaleidoscopic 
182 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


glories  of  its  instrumental  coloring  to  the  mas- 
tery which  composers  have  attained  over  the 
characteristics  of  the  various  instruments.  One 
effect  of  the  long  series  of  experiments  made 
by  their  predecessors  was  the  establishment  of 
the  constitution  of  the  orchestra  itself,  as  well 
as  of  the  methods  of  writing  for  it.  As  com- 
posers came  to  understand  better  the  nature  of 
each  individual  instrument,  they  also  acquired 
a  certainty  as  to  the  proper  place  of  each  in 
the  general  scheme.  Those  which  were  un- 
necessary or  feeble  were  set  aside,  and  the 
inevitable  selection  and  survival  of  the  fittest 
followed. 

It  is  very  difficult,  indeed,  to  ascertain  the 
dates  at  which  the  various  instruments  made 
their  appearance  in  the  orchestra,  or  to  deter- 
mine by  whom  each  was  introduced.  Fre- 
quently an  instrument  was  employed  in  some 
now  forgotten  composition,  and  then  laid  aside 
for  a  time  before  it  came  to  be  habitually  used. 
The  works  of  the  great  composers  do  not  afford 
safe  guidance  in  this  matter,  for  it  was  often 
some  obscure  writer  who  first  perceived  the 
true  value  of  an  instrument.  Yet  it  is  possible 
to  trace  the  general  growth  of  the  orchestra, 
and  this  is  really  the  most  important  thing  to  do. 

In  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth 
centuries  the  forerunners  of  many  of  the  instru- 
183 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


ments  of  the  modern  orchestra  were  in  use  in 
Europe.  The  early  forms  of  the  instruments 
of  the  viol  family  were  employed  and  the  bas- 
soon, schalmei  (ancestor  of  the  clarinet),  horns, 
trumpets,  and  kettle-drums  are  mentioned  and 
illustrated  in  some  of  the  early  books.  The 
harp,  of  course,  was  known  wherever  the  trou- 
badour or  the  gleeman  travelled,  and  that  was 
all  over  Europe.  But  there  was  no  system  of 
combining  these  instruments  in  any  manner 
that  could  possibly  be  recognized  as  leading  to- 
ward our  orchestra.  A  troubadour  used  a  harp 
or  a  viol  to  accompany  his  song.  The  noble- 
man carried  a  hunting  horn  of  brass — the  fore- 
runner of  the  present  French  horn — and  the 
noble  lady  went  to  the  chase  with  a  silver  horn 
of  smaller  size.  Drummers  and  trumpeters 
found  occupation  in  military  organizations,  and 
the  town  piper  sounded  the  Christmas  chorale 
from  the  church-tower.  The  banquets  of  the 
nobles  were  enlivened  by  instrumental  music, 
but  of  its  artistic  nature  we  cannot  form  any 
satisfying  conception.  The  instruments  were 
simply  those  that  chanced  to  be  at  hand,  and 
they  must  have  played  together  in  a  very  rude 
and  elementary  style,  for  we  know  that  prior 
to  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century  no 
one  wrote  for  an  orchestra  of  any  kind. 

The  first  compositions  for  groups  of  instru- 
184 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


ments  resembled  our  chamber  music  rather 
than  our  orchestral  compositions.  \  It  is  the 
desire  of  the  writer  to  adhere  as  closely  as 
possible  to  the  story  of  the  orchestra  pure  and 
simple,  so  nothing  need  be  said  here  about  the 
instruments  employed  in  these  early  works. 
The  modern  orchestra  really  began  to  take 
shape  toward  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
in  pieces  of  dramatic  form,  the  precursors  of 
the  modern  opera.  In  1565  Striggio  and  Cor- 
teccia  scored  their  intermezze  (light  plays  with 
much  music)  for  2  gravicembali  (embryo  pi- 
ianos),  4  violins,  half-a-dozen  different  sizes  of 
lutes  and  lyres,  half-a-dozen  flutes  and  flag- 
eolets, 3  violas  of  different  registers,  4  cornets, 
of  different  powers,  4  trombones,  and  several 
minor  instruments.  The  fatal  defect  of  this 
orchestra  was  its  deficiency  in  stringed  instru- 
ments played  with  a  bow,  and  its  large  force  of 
brass.  It  must  have  been  painfully  weak  in  the 
bass  and  extremely  poor  in  sustaining  power. 
But  as  no  system  of  instrumentation  had  begun 
to  appear  at  this  time,  its  playing  must  have 
been  of  the  most  rudimentary  kind.  As  an 
accompaniment  for  voices,  if  it  was  ever  used 
all  at  once,  it  was  probably  both  thin  and  noisy. 
Jacopo  Peri,  in  his  "  Eurydice "  (1600),  the 
first  opera  performed  in  public,  employed  an 
orchestra  consisting  of  a  harpsichord,  a  lute,  a 

185 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


theorbo  (a  kind  of  large  lute),  a  large  lyre,  and 
three  flutes.  But  there  was  little,  if  anything, 
in  his  work  which  influenced  his  successors. 
He  used  his  instruments  merely  to  supply  the 
simplest  kind  of  chord  accompaniment  to  a 
primitive  species  of  dramatic  recitative.  Emilio 
del  Cavaliere  in  the  same  year  produced  his 
oratorio  "  La  Rappresentazione  dell'  Anima  e 
Corpo,"  and  his  orchestra  consisted  of  a  double 
lyre,  a  harpsichord,  a  bass  lute,  and  two  flutes. 
One  interesting  fact  about  this  orchestra  is  that 
it  was  concealed,  like  that  at  Bayreuth.  But 
the  instruments  were  not  used  as  a  modern 
composer  would  have  employed  even  so  simple 
an  assembly.  Cavaliere,  for  instance,  recom- 
mended that  a  violin  should  play  in  unison 
with  the  soprano  voice  throughout  the  work. 

The  foundation  of  the  modern  orchestra  may 
fairly  be  attributed  to  Claudio  Monteverde, 
born  at  Cremona,  1568,  died  in  Venice,  1643. 
He  was  distinctively  an  operatic  writer,  and  it 
was  in  the  search  after  dramatic  effects  that  he 
discovered  the  relative  values  of  some  of  the 
important  instruments,  and  invented  some  of 
the  most  familiar  orchestral  devices.  In  his 
"  Orfeo,"  produced  in  1608,  he  employed  the 
following  list  of  instruments  :  2  harpsichords,  2 
bass  viols,  10  tenor  viols,  I  double  harp,  "  2  lit- 
tle French  violins,"  2  large  guitars,  2  orgarfc  of 

186 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


wood,  2  viole  di  gamba,  i  regal,  4  trombones, 
2  cornets,  i  octave  flute,  I  clarion,  and  3  trum- 
pets with  mutes. 

The  array  of  brass  in  this  orchestra  is  for- 
midable,  but  we  must  remember  that  Monte- 
verde  did  not  use  it  as  a  modern  writer  would. 
The  system  of  combination  which  has  been  de- 
veloped had  hardly  begun  in  his  day,  and  most 
of  "  Orfeo"  is  accompanied  by  a  simple  figured 
bass,  so  that  we  are  left  to  infer  that  the  or- 
chestral performers  played  very  much  as  they 
pleased  through  many  pages  of  the  work. 

The  "  two  little  French  violins  "  were  un- 
doubtedly such  violins  as  we  know  to-day,  and 
this  is  generally  regarded  as  their  first  appear- 
ance in  the  orchestra  ;  for  the  four  violins  enu- 
merated in  the  intermezzo  orchestra  of  1565 
were  most  probably  members  of  the  old  viol 
family,  and  not  such  instruments  as  we  now 
call  violins.  To  be  sure,  Monteverde's  violins 
played  a  very  small  part,  but  even  that  master 
himself  learned  something  from  experience  in 
their  use,  for  in  later  works  we  find  him  de- 
pending more  and  more  upon  his  bowed  in- 
struments. The  title  "  French  "  should  not  be 
misleading.  The  first  of  the  famous  violin 
makers  was  Gasparo  di  Salo  (1542-1610),  the 
founder  of  the  Brescian  school.  Brescia  is  in 
Lombardy,  which  province  was  continually  in 

187 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


the  throes  of  French  invasion.  That  may  eas- 
ily account  for  the  term  "  French  "  as  applied 
to  these  violins. 

It  was  in  his  "Tancredi  e  Clorinda,"  pro- 
duced in  1624,  that  Monteverde  introduced 
many  novel  effects,  showing  that  he  had  begun 
to  appreciate  the  expressive  powers  of  his  in- 
struments.  One  of  these  was  the  tremolo  for 
bowed  instruments.  It  is  said  that  this  pas- 
sage "  so  astonished  the  performers  that  at  first 
they  refused  to  play  it."  In  the  scene  of  the 
combat  in  the  opera,  the  composer,  using  three 
violas  and  a  double-bass,  wrote  a  descriptive 
accompaniment  to  the  recitative.  Rhythmic 
figures,  syncopations,  alternating  scales,  as  well 
as  the  tremolo  and  the  pizzicato,  were  em- 
ployed in  this,  the  first  independent  dramatic 
orchestration  of  which  we  have  any  record. 
The  real  significance  of  the  work  lies  in  the 
fact  that  Monteverde  here  opened  up  the  realm 
of  special  instrumental  effects,  as  distinguished 
from  vocal  ones,  and  also  indicated  the  fun- 
damental value  of  the  stringed  instruments 
played  with  bows. 

This  truth  having  been  acquired,  and  the 
purely  military  value  of  trumpets  and  drums 
being  already  known,  it  was  inevitable  that 
composers  should  move  gradually  but  slowly 
toward  the  establishment  of  the  s'tring  and  brass 

188 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


choirs  of  the  modern  orchestra.  The  wood- 
wind came  to  its  position  more  slowly,  chiefly 
because  of  the  rude  and  difficult  system  of  fin- 
gering, which  made  the  instruments  trouble- 
some to  learn.  The  value  of  their  tonal  differ- 
ences was  not  perceived  at  an  early  date,  and 
indeed  it  was  not  until  near  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century  that  any  direct  attempts  at 
tone-coloring  were  made. 

The  establishment  of  the  string  quartet  was 
really  the  first  vital  step  toward  the  arrangement 
of  the  orchestra  of  to-day,  and  this  step  was  the 
direct  result  of  Monteverde's  experiments.  For 
a  time  there  was  a  tolerable  system  in  which 
viols  of  various  kinds  were  used.  The  thor- 
ough-bass was  played  by  the  deeper-toned  viols, 
and  the  harpsichord  filled  out  the  harmonies. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  at  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century  and  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth, there  were  two  kinds  of  viola,  the  viola 
dagamba(held  between  the  knees),  and  the  viola 
da  braccia  (held  at  the  shoulder),  and  there  were 
a  dozen  or  more  species  of  these  two  kinds. 
But  the  study  of  the  special  characters  of  in- 
struments led  to  the  selection  for  permanent 
use  of  the  best  of  these.  The  bass  viol  became 
our  double-bass  ;  the  tenor  viola  da  gamba,  the 
violoncello ;  the  tenor  viola  da  braccia,  the 
viola,  and  so  on.  The  violin  began  to  make 

189 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


known  its  value,  and  after  that  progress  was 
steady. 

In  1649  Cavalli,  in  his  opera  "Giasone,"  wrote 
an  accompaniment  for  two  violins  and  a  bass 
in  a  style  which  endured  for  half  a  century. 
Only  a  few  years  now  elapsed  before  the  mod- 
ern string  quartet,  in  its  primitive  form,  found 
its  way  into  the  orchestra.  Alessandro  Scar- 
latti, born  in  1659,  was  one  of  the  great  geniuses 
of  Italy,  and  founded  that  style  of  opera  of 
which  Bellini,  Donizetti,  and  Rossini  were  the 
most  popular  modern  exponents.  He  enlarged 
and  improved  almost  every  department  of  oper- 
atic writing,  and  contributed  much  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  orchestral  part. 

In  its  general  features  his  orchestra  was  not 
unlike  that  of  to-day.  Violins,  violas,  and 
basses  were  its  foundation,  but  their  employ- 
ment was  naturally  crude.  The  'celli  always 
played  in  unison  with  the  basses,  and  so,  for  the 
most  part,  did  the  violas ;  but  there  were  many 
instances  in  which  he  used  his  violas  indepen- 
dently and  even  in  two  parts.  The  oboe  was  the 
principal  wind-instrument,  while  the  bassoons 
were  used  to  strengthen  the  bass  and  were  sel- 
dom heard  alone.  Flutes  were  introduced  for 
their  special  character.*  Scarlatti's  use  of 

*  The  German  flute,  as  it  was  called,  was  introduced  into  the 
orchestra  by  Lully,  in  his  "Isis,"  1677. 

190 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


violas  independent  of  the  basses  and  in  real 
parts  led  him  toward  the  true  distribution  of  ,. 
the  string  quartet,  and  in  several  of  his  operas 
we  find  him  writing  accompaniments  for  two 
violins,  viola,  and  bass  in  a  style  which  has 
been  employed  frequently  by  all  subsequent 
composers. 

It  is  not  possible  to  say  that  Scarlatti  invented 
this  style,  for  it  must  have  been  the  result  of 
long  experimenting  ;  but  he  saw  its  superiority 
and  used  it  so  systematically  that  it  was  copied 
by  his  successors  together  with  other  salient 
features  of  his  style.  The  chief  importance  of 
this  manner  of  writing  was  its  establishment  of 
the  proper  distribution  of  the  four  notes  of  a 
chord  among  the  four  instruments.  The  bal- 
ance and  solidity  of  tone  thus  gained  was  of 
vital  importance  to  the  development  of  orches- 
tral writing,  and  of  the  orchestra  itself.  Scar- 
latti gave  the  treble  part  to  the  first  violin,  the 
alto  to  the  second,  the  tenor  to  the  viola,  and 
the  bass  to  the  bass ;  and  that  is  what  compos- 
ers have  done  ever  since.  About  the  same  : 
time  we  find  Alessandro  Stradella  writing,  in 
a  manner  afterward  employed  in  their  concert! 
grossi  by  Bach  and  Handel,  for  two  solo  violins 
and  a  solo  violoncello,  with  an  accompaniment 
of  violins,  violas,  and  basses. 

In  France  the  most  important  musician  of  the 
191 


period  was  Jean  Baptiste  Lully  (1633-87),  who 
was  also  a  composer  of  operas.  His  orchestra 
was  less  elastic  than  Scarlatti's,  yet  it  was  of  a 
type  which  survived  for  many  years.  Its  foun- 
dation was  a  body  of  strings,  violins  playing 
the  upper  parts,  and  viols  of  different  registers 
the  middle  and  lower  parts.  These  were  sup- 
ported by  a  harpsichord,  to  which  was  given  a 
figured-bass  part.  Trumpets,  flutes,  and  oboes 
were  employed  to  increase  the  volume  of  tone 
and  to  produce  certain  obvious  color-effects. 
For  example,  trumpets  were  heard  in  mar- 
tial passages  and  oboes  in  pastoral  scenes. 
Tympani  came  into  the  orchestra  at  this  time 
also.  It  cannot  be  said  that  Lully  showed  gen- 
ius for  orchestral  writing,  and  for  that  reason 
his  orchestra  is  an  excellent  example  of  the  con- 
ventional arrangement  of  the  day.  The  use  of 
the  harpsichord  goes  to  show  that  composers 
of  that  time  did  not  know  how  to  get  a  full 
and  sonorous  harmony  out  of  the  purely  or- 
chestral instruments,  and  their  attempts  to  sup- 
ply the  deficiency  with  the  tinkling  percussive 
notes  of  the  keyed  instrument  were  foredoomed 
to  failure. 

Giovanni  Legrenzi,  a  famous  Venetian  com- 
poser (1625-90),  employed  what  looked  like  a 
fairly  rational  orchestra.    It  consisted  of  19  vio- 
lins, 2  violas,  2  viole  di  gamba,  4  large  lutes,  2 
192 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


cornets,  i  bassoon,  and  3  trombones.  The  chief 
shortcoming  of  this  orchestra,  aside  from  its 
deficiency  in  wood-wind,  is  its  want  of  stringed 
basses.  A  most  important  contributor  to  the 
development  of  the  orchestra  at  this  period  was 
Arcangelo  Corelli  (1653-1713).  He  was  a  great 
violinist,  and,  in  composing  for  the  violin  as  a 
solo  and  chamber-music  instrument,  he  ex- 
plored  its  resources  and  illustrated  its  relation 
to  other  instruments.  Some  of  his  important 
works  were :  "  Twelve  Sonatas  for  Two  Violins 
and  Violoncello,  with  Bass  for  the  Organ " 
(Rome,  1683),  "Twelve  Chamber  Sonatas  for 
Two  Violins,  Violoncello,  and  Violone,  or  Cem- 
balo "  (Rome,  1685),  and  "  Concert!  Grossi," 
for  two  solo  violins  and  solo  violoncello,  with 
accompaniment  for  additional  instruments 
(1712).  In  these  works  Corelli  did  much  to 
point  the  way  toward  modern  chamber  music 
and  its  forms,  and  in  doing  so  contributed  di- 
rectly toward  that  understanding  of  the  relative 
powers  and  limits  of  the  members  of  the  string 
quartet  without  which  good  orchestral  writing 
is  impossible. 

We  have  now  reached  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  typical  orchestra  of 
the  time  consisted  of  strings,  distributed  in  the 
fashion  set  by  A.  Scarlatti,  but  not  always  with 
a  correct  adjustment  of  the  number  of  each 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


kind,  two  pairs  of  wind-instruments,  and  the 
harpsichord  as  the  impotent  agent  to  fill  out 
the  harmonies.  It  was  at  this  period  that  two 
great  composers  arose  and  exerted  an  influence 
which  affected  the  entire  subsequent  develop- 
ment of  music.  These  composers  were  George 
Frederick  Handel  (1685-1759)  and  Johann  Se- 
bastian Bach  (1685-1750).  Both  of  these  writ- 
ers  made  improvements  in  the  orchestra  and  in 
orchestral  music.  Something  has  already  been 
said  about  their  methods  of  writing  for  the  or- 
chestra, but  the  reader  will  pardon  some  repe- 
tition of  facts  which  throw  light  on  the  con- 
stitution of  the  orchestral  body  under  these 
composers.  Bach  was  essentially  a  polyphonic 
writer,  and  he  treated  his  orchestral  instru- 
ments as  if  they  were  voices.  Each  one  had  an 
essentially  melodic  part  to  sing,  and  the  beauti- 
ful interweaving  of  these  voice  parts  constitutes 
one  of  the  never-ending  charms  of  the  great 
master's  music.  He  contrasted  with  this  style 
passages  of  extreme  simplicity,  in  which  the 
strings  and  the  keyed  instrument — organ  or 
clavier — were  used. 

Handel,  on  the  other  hand,  was  chiefly  a  com- 
poser of  operas  and  oratorios,  and  his  orches- 
tral style  was  developed  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent in  the  direction  of  building  up  huge  cli- 
maxes by  means  of  mass  effects.  It  may  be 

194 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


said,  therefore,  with  some  reservation,  yet  with 
general  correctness,  that  Bach's  orchestral  style 
has  afforded  later  composers  a  model  for  solo 
effects  in  the  orchestra,  while  for  solidity  and 
sonority  of  the  entire  instrumental  body  Han- 
del has  been  mainly  followed.  One  of  the  forms 
in  which  Bach  exercised  his  genius  was  the 
Concerto  Grosso,  in  which  two  or  three  solo 
instruments,  instead  of  one,  are  heard  with  or- 
chestral accompaniment.  In  1721  Bach  wrote 
six  of  these  works,  known  as  the  Brandenburg 
Concertos.  Only  one  of  these,  the  first,  would 
be  regarded  as  an  orchestral  work  in  our  time. 
The  others  belong  rather  to  the  department  of 
chamber  music,  though  by  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  instruments  in  each  part  they  may  be 
made  to  have  an  orchestral  effect.  The  first 
concerto,  however,  was  written  for  the  string 
quartet,  aided  by  the  double-bass  and  the  violino 
piccolo  (a  little  violin  with  a  high  compass),  two 
horns,  two  oboes,  bassoon,  and  harpsichord. 
These  instruments  were  employed  in  three 
groups:  horns,  wood,  and  strings ;  but  one  must 
remember  that  Bach's  polyphonic  method  of 
using  his  wind-instruments  was  altogether  dif- 
ferent from  the  manner  in  which  the  same  in- 
struments are  now  employed. 

In  his  church  music  Bach  combined  the  or- - 
chestra  and  the  organ.     As  Dr.  Spitta  points 

195 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


out  in  his  biography  of  Bach,  the  organ  in  these 
works  occupied  a  position  similar  to  that  of  the 
string  quartet  in  the  modern  orchestra.  "  Just 
as  the  wind-instruments  group  themselves 
round  this  as  a  centre,"  he  says,  "  so  all  the  in- 
struments grouped  themselves  round  the  organ. 
The  relations  were  different,  however,  in  this 
way:  that  the  organ  remained  always  in  the 
background,  its  effect  being  merely  that  of 
power,  and  that  on  this  background  the  other 
instruments  were  seen  not  so  much  as  solo  in- 
struments,  but  rather  as  choric  groups.  One 
of  these  groups  was  the  quartet  of  strings,  an- 
other the  oboes  and  bassoon,  a  third  the  cornet 
and  trombones,  and  a  fourth  the  trumpets  (or 
sometimes  horns)  and  the  drums."  Bach's 
method  of  writing  for  the  orchestra  did  not  in- 
fluence his  immediate  successors  very  greatly, 
for  the  reason  that  his  retired  life  and  modest 
position  prevented  his  works  from  becoming 
generally  known  until  long  after  his  death.  Sir 
John  Hawkins's  "  History  of  Music,"  published 
in  England  in  1776,  contains  only  half  a  page 
about  Bach,  communicated  to  the  author  by 
one  of  Bach's  sons,  a  resident  of  London. 

Handel,  on  the  other  hand,  enjoyed  a  world- 
wide fame  during  his  life,  and  his  works 
were  studied  by  musicians  far  and  near.  Han- 
del employed,  though  very  rarely  all  at  once, 

196 


From  Peri  to  Handel 


all  the  instruments  used  in  the  modern  orches- 
tra except  the  clarinet.  He  approached  more 
nearly  than  Bach  to  the  modern  methods  of 
orchestral  contrast  in  massive  effects  of  instru- 
mental color,  yet  he  did  not  reach  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  the  distribution  of 
the  instruments  in  the  orchestra  of  to-day  rest. 
Perhaps  the  most  important  difference  is  to  be 
found  in  the  large  number  of  wind-instruments 
employed  by  Handel,  who  used  them  frequently 
in  masses  simply  to  reinforce  the  strings.  The 
number  of  oboes  and  bassoons,  for  instance, 
was  much  larger  in  Handel's  orchestra  than  in 
a  modern  band.  This  was  due  partly  to  the 
inferior  power  of  the  instruments  of  his  time, 
but  equally  to  the  different  method  of  his  scor- 
ing. The  brass  instruments  were  used  by  both 
Bach  and  Handel  differently  from  the  manner 
in  which  modern  composers  employ  them. 
The  reader  will  recall  that  they  wrote  trumpet 
parts  of  such  high  compass  that  players  of  to- 
day cannot  perform  them.  In  conclusion,  as  to 
Bach  and  Handel  it  should  be  noted  that  their 
orchestration  is  rarely  heard.  Most  of  their 
great  works,  such  as  the  "  St.  Matthew  Pas- 
sion "  and  "  The  Messiah,"  are  performed  now 
with  modern  orchestral  arrangements,  not  ac- 
cording to  the  original  scores. 


197 


XV 

From  Haydn  to  Wagner 

THE  constitution  of  the  orchestra  in  the  early 
part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  then,  had 
reached  the  basis  on  which  it  now  rests,  except 
for  the  fact  that  the  harpsichord  was  still  used. 
There  was,  however,  a  complete  and  well-or- 
ganized body  of  strings,  similar  to  that  which 
we  have  to-day.  The  violoncello  alone  had  not 
attained  its  true  position.  It  was  not  always 
included,  and  generally  when  it  was,  it  played 
in  unison  with  the  double-basses.  To  the  body 
of  strings  were  added  such  wind-instruments 
as  the  composer  desired — two  oboes,  two  bas- 
soons, and  two  horns  being,  perhaps,  the  most 
familiar  assortment.  Two  trumpets  and  a  pair 
of  kettle-drums  were  introduced  when  brilliant 
militant  passages  were  to  be  written.  Trom- 
bones were  not  heard  in  symphonic  compo- 
sitions, and  the  harp  seemed  to  have  fallen  into 
oblivion.  The  clarinet  had  not  yet  entered  the 
orchestra.  Flutes  were  used  often.  The  sys- 
tematic use  of  wood-wind  instruments  in  pairs 
198 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


was  just  beginning.  The  delay  in  this  vital  mat- 
ter was  due  to  the  hold  which  the  polyphonic 
style  of  composition  still  had.  It  was  only  when 
the  musical  world  gave  up  writing  fugues  and 
canons  and  turned  its  attention  to  the  harmonic 
style,  in  which  a  song-like  melody  is  supported 
by  an  accompaniment  built  on  chords,  that  the 
value  of  the  wind  choir  in  the  formation  of 
these  chords  was  appreciated.  That  fact  once 
known,  composers  speedily  established  the  bal- 
ance of  power  between  wind  and  strings,  and 
arranged  a  suitable  list  of  wind-instruments. 

The  orchestral  symphony  came  into  exist- 
ence about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  with  its  advent  we  find  the  orchestra 
of  Bach  and  Handel  slightly  modified  and  dif- 
ferently employed.  Joseph  Haydn  (1732-1809) 
is  credited  with  being  the  father  of  the  sym- 
phony, and  he  established  the  real  basis  of  the 
modern  orchestra.  Yet  something  was  due  to 
the  labors  of  two  or  three  other  men.  Of  these, 
I  have  already  mentioned  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant, Johann  Karl  Stamitz,  a  Bohemian,  who  •'• 
in  1745  became  leading  violin  and  director  of 
the  orchestra  of  the  Elector  of  Mannheim.  He 
spared  no  efforts  to  teach  his  strings  to  play 
with  precision  and  refinement,  to  phrase  beau- 
tifully, and  to  make  all  the  shades  of  piano  and 
forte.  His  orchestra  became  the  best  in  Eu- 
199 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


rope,  and  his  methods  survived  him.  Mozart 
heard  at  Mannheim  for  the  first  time  in  his  life 
artistic  orchestral  performance,  and  he  was 
deeply  influenced  by  it. 

Another,  who  has  been  mentioned  and  who 
exercised  much  influence  on  the  orchestra 
through  his  study  of  its  capacities,  was  Fran- 
cois Joseph  Gossec  (1733-1829).  He  was  a  stu- 
dent of  the  orchestra  in  early  life,  and  his  first 
symphony  was  performed  five  years  before 
Haydn's.  How  much  insight  into  orchestral 
effect  Gossec  possessed  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  in  his  "  Messe  des  Morts"  (1760) 
he  wrote  the  "  Tuba  Mirum  "  for  two  groups 
of  instruments,  one  of  wind-instruments  con- 
cealed outside  the  church,  and  the  other  of 
strings  inside,  the  latter  accompanying  the  for- 
mer with  a  tremolo  in  the  high  register. 

Haydn's  first  symphony  was  written  in  1759 
for  first  and  second  violins,  violas,  basses,  two 
oboes  and  two  horns.  His  last  symphony  was 
composed  in  1795,  and  by  that  time  he  had  at 
his  command  the  whole  symphonic  orchestra 
as  it  stood  when  Beethoven  took  up  the  work 
of  orchestral  development.  Between  the  dates 
of  Haydn's  first  and  last  symphony,  Mozart  had 
lived  the  whole  of  his  wonderful  life,  and 
Haydn,  who  at  first  had  been  his  master,  had 
in  the  end  become  his  pupil. 
200 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


It  was  from  Mozart  that  Haydn  learned  the 
use  of  the  clarinet,  and  we  find  it  employed  in 
his  last  symphonies.  The  clarinet  proper, 
which  was  the  successor  of  the  schalmei  or 
shawm,  is  said  to  have  been  invented  by  Jo- 
hann  Denner,  of  Nuremberg,  in  1690.  The 
claim  is  doubtful,  yet  the  modern  instrument 
probably  originated  about  that  time.  Many 
improvements  have  been  made  in  it,  the  most 
notable  being  the  application  to  it  by  Klos6,  in 
1843,  of  the  Boehm  system  of  fingering. 

Haydn's  familiar  symphony  in  D,  written  in 
London  in  1795,  is  scored  for  2  flutes,  2  oboes, 
2  clarinets,  2  bassoons,  2  horns,  kettle-drums, 
violins,  violas,  'cellos,  and  bassos.  It  is  a  fact 
that  Haydn  first  employed  2  clarinets  and  a 
bassoon  as  the  wood-wind  choir  in  his  first 
mass,  written  in  1751  or  1752,  but  it  was  Mozart  ^ 
who  revealed  the  real  capacity  of  the  clarinet 
and  established  its  position  in  the  orchestra. 
Haydn,  however,  must  be  credited  with  im-  / 
mense  advances  in  the  development  of  the  or- 
chestra, because  in  developing  the  symphonic 
form,  he  was  constantly  experimenting  and 
discovering  the  values  of  the  various  instru- 
ments and  their  relations  to  one  another.  Some 
of  the  symphonies  composed  after  he  had  been 
a  symphonic  writer  for  years,  show  great  ret- 
icence in  their  scoring.  For  example,  the  sym- 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


phony  known  as  the  "  Queen  of  France,"  writ- 
ten for  Paris  in  1786,  is  scored  for  2  horns,  2 
oboes,  i  flute,  2  bassoons,  and  string  quartet 
The  introduction  to  the  "  Creation,"  one  of  the 
master's  latest  works,  is  scored  for  2  flutes,  2 
oboes,  2  clarinets,  2  bassoons,  a  contra-bassoon, 
2  horns,  2  trumpets,  3  trombones,  tympani,  and 
the  usual  strings.  But  when  he  was  writing 
this  oratorio  Haydn  needed  a  large  orchestra 
for  his  newly  invented  effects  of  instrumental 
description.  In  the  "  Creation  "  and  "  The  Sea- 
sons "  he  made  the  orchestra  paint  chaos,  win- 
ter storms,  and  spring  peace.  He  naturally 
sought  for  more  instrumental  voices,  and  em- 
ployed the  complete  orchestra  of  his  time. 

Much  of  Haydn's  success  in  developing  the 
orchestra  and  the  art  of  writing  for  it  was  due 
to  his  long  occupancy  of  the  post  of  director 
of  music  under  Prince  Esterhazy.  Haydn  was 
appointed  to  this  post  at  Eisenstadt  in  1761, 
and  retained  it  till  1790.  He  had  at  his  dis- 
posal a  small  company  of  singers,  capable  of 
performing  opera  or  oratorio,  and  a  small  or- 
chestra. In  1766  this  orchestra  numbered  17 
instruments:  6  violins  and  violas,  i  violoncello, 
i  double-bass,  i  flute,  2  oboes,  2  bassoons,  and 
4  horns.  It  was  subsequently  enlarged  to  22 
and  24,  including  trumpets  and  kettle-drums 
when  needed.  From  1776  to  1778  there  were 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


also  clarinets.  That  this  arrangement  did  not 
prevail  all  over  Europe  even  at  that  time  is 
shown  by  the  distribution  of  instruments  and 
seating-plan  of  the  orchestra  at  Dresden  under 
Hasse,  near  the  close  of  the  last  century.  This 
plan  is  reproduced  from  Jahn's  "  Life  of  Mozart." 


I — Conductor's  harpsichord. 
2 — Second  harpsichord. 
3 — Violoncelli. 
4 — Double-basses. 
5 — First  Violins. 
6 — Second  Violins. 


7 — Oboes. 

8— Flutes. 

a — Violas. 

b — Bassoons. 

c — Horns. 

d — Trumpets  and  drums  on  platforms. 


The  preponderance  of  bassoons  in  the  Dres* 
den  orchestra  was  due  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
an  opera  orchestra,  and  in  it  Handelian  ideas 
still  prevailed.  Haydn,  meanwhile,  was  pro- 
ceeding along  the  true  symphonic  path,  and 
an  orchestra  of  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets,  2 
bassoons,  2  horns,  2  trumpets,  tympani,  and 
strings  fairly  represents  the  result  of  his  con- 
tributions to  its  development  up  to  the  time 
when  Mozart  took  up  the  work.  It  should 
be  added  that  even  Haydn  was  not  sufficiently 
trustful  of  his  instrumental  army  to  leave  it 
without  the  weak  support  of  the  harpsichordj 
203 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


and  he  frequently  sat  at  this  instrument  during 
the  performance  of  his  symphonies  and  played 
with  the  orchestra,  with  extremely  bad  effect. 

Wolfgang  Amadeus  Mozart  (1756-1791)  ap- 
plied his  amazing  genius  to  the  development  of 
the  orchestra,  as  well  as  to  all  other  depart- 
ments of  musical  art.  His  work  was  rather 
that  of  exploring  the  capacities  of  the  instru- 
ments in  use  than  adding  new  ones  to  the  ex- 
tant list.  That  was  in  keeping  with  Mozart's 
entire  career.  He  was  not  a  reformer;  he 
took  what  he  found  and  put  genuine  life  into 
it.  He  found  clarinets,  for  example,  and  he  il- 
lustrated, to  the  conviction  of  all  subsequent 
composers,  their  true  place  in  the  orchestra. 

Indeed,  he  made  a  complete  revelation  of  the 
powers  of  wind-instrument  choirs  in  his  suites 
and  divertimenti  for  them,  so  that  Haydn 
once  complained  to  Kalkenbrenner:  "I  have 
only  learnt  the  proper  use  of  wind-instru- 
ments in  my  old  age,  and  now  I  must  pass 
away  without  turning  my  knowledge  to  ac- 
count." Mozart's  three  greatest  symphonies 
are  those  composed  in  the  summer  of  1788,  the 
E  flat  major,  G  minor,  and  C  ("  Jupiter  ").  The 
E  flat  is  scored  for  i  flute,  2  clarinets,  2  bas- 
soons, 2  horns,  2  trumpets,  tympani,  and  strings. 
The  G  minor  is  written  for  i  flute,  2  oboes,  2 
bassoons,  2  horns,  and  strings,  but  owing  to 

204 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


Mozart's  insight  into  the  effect  of  combina- 
tions, this  small  orchestra  sounds  marvellously 
full  and  noble.  Clarinets  were  afterward  ad- 
ded. The  "  Jupiter  "  symphony  is  scored  for 
i  flute,  2  oboes,  2  bassoons,  2  horns,  2  trumpets, 
tympani,  and  strings. 

It  will  be  seen  from  this  that  although  Mo- 
zart established  the  place  of  the  clarinet,  he  did 
not  invariably  make  use  of  it,  while  even  up  to 
the  date  of  these  last  symphonies,  the  trombone 
had  not  assumed  a  position  in  the  symphonic 
orchestra.  Mozart  was  always  moderate  in  his 
use  of  this  instrument.  In  his  "  Don  Giovan- 
ni" he  reserves  his  trombones  to  accompany 
the  ghost  of  the  Commendatore.  In  "  Die  Zau- 
berflote"  they  are  used  more  freely,  as,  in- 
deed, they  always  were  in  religious  or  masonic 
music.  In  "  Die  Zauberflote "  Mozart  also 
used  basset-horns,  the  tenor  of  the  clarinet, 
now  obsolete.  In  fact,  at  all  times  in  the  early 
and  classical  periods,  a  larger  array  of  instru- 
ments was  called  into  service  in  the  operatic 
than  in  the  symphonic  orchestra.  It  is  only 
since  the  romantic  composers  began  to  paint 
in  gorgeous  tone-coloring,  rather  than  work 
out  intellectual  plans  of  thematic  development, 
that  the  symphonic  band  has  equalled  the  oper- 
atic in  the  variety  of  its  component  elements. 

The  development  of  the  orchestra  in  the  hands 
205 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


of  the  greatest  of  all  symphonic  composers, 
Ludwig  van  Beethoven  (1770-1827),  was  of  im- 
mense importance.  Beethoven  did  not  add 

.  greatly  to  the  array  of  instruments,  but\he  de- 
monstrated the  true  relationships  of  the  various 
bodies,  and  he  enlarged  them  and  their  scope 
according  to  his  desire  for  greater  utterance/ 
In  the  First  Symphony,  C  major  (1800),  and  the 
Second,  D  major  (1803),  he  employs  the  same 
orchestra:  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets,  2  bas- 
soons, 2  horns,  2  trumpets,  tympani,  first  and 
second  violins,  violas,  and  basses.  It  is  worthy 
of  note  that  the  'cello  is  not  specified.  In  the 

N  Third  Symphony, "  Eroica,"  E  flat  major  (1805), 
he  used  the  same  orchestra,  except  that  he  ad- 
ded a  third  horn  part  and  wrote  "  violoncello  e 
basso." 

It  is  believed  that  three  horns  were  employed 
in  the  symphonic  orchestra  for  the  first  time  in 
this  work.  Mozart  used  four  in  "  Idomeneo  " 
(1781).  The  Fourth  Symphony,  B  flat  (1807),  is 
a  smaller  work,  and  its  orchestra  is  the  same  as 
that  of  the  First  and  Second,  except  that  only 
one  flute  is  required  and  the  'cello  is  named. 
The  great  Fifth  Symphony,  C  minor  (1808),  is 
scored  for  i  piccolo,  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets, 

2  bassoons,  contra-bassoon,  2  horns,  2  trumpets, 

3  trombones,  drums,  and  strings.     Sir  George 
Grove  notes  that  "  the  piccolo,  trombones,  and 

206 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


contra-fagotto  are  employed  in  the  finale  only, 
and  make  their  appearance  here  for  the  first 
time  in  the  symphonies.  The  contra-fagotto 
was  first  known  to  Beethoven  in  his  youth  at 
Bonn,  where  the  Elector's  orchestra  contained 
one.  He  has  employed  it  also  in  '  Fidelio,'  in 
the  Ninth  Symphony,  and  elsewhere." 

The  Sixth  Symphony,  known  as  the  "  Pas- 
toral "  (1808),  is  scored  for  i  piccolo,  2  flutes,  2 
oboes,  2  clarinets,  2  bassoons,  2  horns,  2  trum- 
pets, 2  trombones,  drums,  and  strings.  The 
piccolo  and  trombones  were  used  for  special  de- 
scriptive effects  in  this  work,  and  when  he  came 
to  write  the  great  Seventh  Symphony  (1813), 
Beethoven  employed  the  same  array  of  instru- 
ments as  he  had  in  his  First  and  Second  sympho- 
nies. The  same  orchestra  sufficed  for  the  Eighth 
Symphony  (1814),  but  the  Titanic  Ninth  (1824) 
demanded  a  larger  instrumental  body.  The 
score  calls  for  i  piccolo,  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clar- 
inets, 2  bassoons,  i  contra-bassoon,  4  horns,  2 
trumpets,  3  trombones,  tympani,  triangle,  cym- 
bals, bass  drum,  and  strings.  Four  horns  are 
here  used  for  the  first  time  in  the  symphonic 
orchestra,  and  their  introduction  completed  the 
development  of  the  classical  body  of  instru- 
ments. 

When  the  romantic  writers  began  to  advance 
along  the  path  opened  by  Beethoven  and  to  seek 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


for  broader  and  more  influental  emotional  ex 
pression,  they  introduced  one  or  two  more  in- 
struments for  special  effects.  The  English  horn 
was  known  to  Bach  in  its  primitive  form  of  oboe 
dacaccia.  It  was  used  by  Gluck  in  his  "Orfeo" 
and  "  Telemacho,"  but,  as  Berlioz  notes,  with- 
out apparent  appreciation  of  its  tone-quality. 
In  its  modern  form  it  was  introduced  into  the 
orchestra  by  Rossini  in  "  William  Tell "  (1829), 
and  Meyerbeer  in  "Robert  le  Diable  "  (1831). 
Modern  symphonic  writers  use  it  freely.  Its 
employment  in  their  music  is  probably  due 
to  the  demonstration  of  its  utility  by  the 
eminent  French  composer,  Hector  Berlioz 
(1803-69),  who  had  a  truly  wonderful  insight 
into  the  powers  of  all  orchestral  instruments, 
and  who  laid  down  the  principles  of  the  post- 
Beethovenian  style  of  orchestral  writing.  We 
find  Schubert,  Schumann,  Mendelssohn,  and 
other  immediate  followers  of  Beethoven  using 
precisely  the  same  orchestra,  sometimes  with 
two  horns  and  sometimes  with  four,  and  seldom 
without  trombones,  throughout  an  entire  work. 
Berlioz,  however,  began  at  once  to  give  variety 
to  the  instrumental  body.  For  instance,  so 
small  a  work  as  his  arrangement  for  orchestra 
of  Weber's  "  Invitation  a  la  Valse  "  is  scored 
for  i  piccolo,  i  flute,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets,  4  bas- 
soons, 4  horns,  i  cornet,  i  trumpet,  3  trom. 
208 


from  a  photograph  by  Reutlingcr. 

BERLIOZ. 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


bones,  2  harps,  tympani,  and  strings.  The 
harp,  as  we  have  noted,  had  been  used  in  the 
opera,  but  Berlioz  was  the  first  to  explore  its 
possibilities.  Many  of  Berlioz's  other  advances 
in  the  use  of  orchestral  instruments  were  owing 
to  the  introduction,  in  1832,  of  the  system  of 
boring  and  keying  wind-instruments  invented 
by  Theobald  Boehm.  This  system  vastly  in- 
creased the  agility  of  these  instruments  and 
improved  their  intonation. 

Naturally,  some  of  Berlioz's  ideas  were  bor- 
rowed from  the  operatic  composers,  who  fre- 
quently employed  unusual  combinations  for 
dramatic  effects.  In  the  "  Quorum  hodie  "  of 
his  "  Requiem,"  for  instance,  Berlioz  calls  for 
3  flutes,  8  tenor  trombones,  and  strings  to  ac- 
company a  chorus.  The  "  Dies  Iras "  of  the 
same  mass  calls  for  4  small  brass  bands  to  be 
placed  at  the  corners  of  the  main  instrumental 
body,  and  for  14  kettle-drums  tuned  to  different 
notes.  But  at  present  we  are  more  concerned 
with  the  direct  development  of  the  orchestra 
than  with  special  combinations.  The  bass  clari- 
net was  seldom  used  till  Adolph  Sax,  the  famous 
instrument-maker,  perfected  its  construction. 
Meyerbeer,  who  was  a  great  friend  of  Sax,  intro- 
duced the  instrument  in  his  opera  scores.  He 
gives  to  it  a  fine  declamatory  passage  in  "  Les 
Huguenots  "  (Act  V.),  and  gives  it  a  melodic 
209 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


part  in  the  coronation  march  in  "  Le  Prophete." 
It  was  Wagner,  however,  who  fully  illustrated 
the  capacity  of  this  noble  instrument,  and  by 
his  employment  of  it,  both  as  a  solo  singer  and 
a  fundamental  bass  of  the  wood-wind,  led  con- 
temporaneous symphonic  writers  to  employ  it 
freely. 

The  brass  choir  has  been  enlarged  since  Beet- 
hoven's day  by  the  addition  of  the  bass  tuba, 
an  instrument  which  came  into  use  only  after 
Sax  had  perfected  its  mechanism.  Before  that 
the  ophicleide,  a  bass  instrument  of  the  keyed 
bugle  family,  was  occasionally  employed.  Men- 
delssohn calls  for  it  in  the  score  of  his  "  Mid- 
summer Night's  Dream,"  and  Berlioz  has  four 
in  the  score  of  his  "  Requiem."  These  parts 
are  now  played  on  tubas.  Additional  trumpets 
are  often  used  to  strengthen  the  brass,  and 
Wagner  even  caused  tenor  tubas  to  be  made  to 
give  certain  tone-tints,  together  with  sonor- 
ity, to  the  funeral  march  of  "  Gotterdammer- 
ung."  All  kinds  of  instruments  of  percussion 
are  introduced  when  their  peculiarities  are  de- 
sired, and,  as  already  said,  bells,  gongs,  tri- 
angles, and  even  the  vulgar  xylophone,  find 
something  to  do  in  the  modern  orchestra. 

In  the  first  opera,  Peri's  "  Eurydice,"  as  we 
have  seen,  the  orchestra  consisted  of  a  harpsi- 
chord, a  large  guitar,  a  viol,  a  large  lute,  and 

210 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


three  flutes.  Two  centuries  and  a  half  later,  in 
1850,  the  overture  to  Wagner's  "Lohengrin" 
called  for  3  flutes,  2  oboes,  i  English  horn,  2 
clarinets,  I  bass  clarinet,  3  bassoons,  4  horns,  3 
trumpets,  3  trombones,  I  bass  tuba,  kettle-drums, 
cymbals,  and  strings.  In  the  third  act  of  "  Die 
Walkiire  "  the  same  composer  calls  for  2  picco- 
los, 2  flutes,  3  oboes,  i  English  horn,  3  clarinets, 
i  bass  clarinet,  3  bassoons,  8  horns,  4  trumpets, 
i  bass  trumpet,  4  trombones,  i  contra-bass  tuba, 
4  kettle-drums,  cymbals  and  bass  drum,  harp 
and  strings.  How  this  enormous  growth  has 
been  accomplished  the  author  has  endeavored 
to  outline.  The  reader  will  perceive,  however, 
that  the  fundamental  arrangement  of  the  or- 
chestra, as  left  to  us  by  Haydn  and  Mozart, 
has  not  been  altered,  but  simply  extended.  As 
I  have  already  noted,  the  aims  of  the  romantic 
composers  in  the  direction  of  tone-coloring 
have  led  to  this  extension.  Yet  by  means  of 
modern  methods  of  instrumentation,  glowing 
results  can  be  obtained  from  the  symphonic 
orchestra  employed  by  Beethoven.  An  excel- 
lent instance  of  this  is  the  "  Symphonic  Path- 
etique  "  of  Tschaikowsky,  which  addsp«ly_lhe 
bass  tuba  to  Beethoven's  orchestra.^TOunod,  in 
his  "  Redemption,"  a  richly  orchestrated  work, 
employs  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets,  2  bassoons, 
4  horns,  2  trumpets,  3  trombones,  tympani, 

211 


How  the  Orchestra  Grew 


bass  drum  and  cymbals,  strings  and  organ  in 
one  of  the  most  effective  passages.  On  the 
other  hand,  Jean  Louis  Nicode,  in  the  "  Phos- 
phorescent Lights"  movement  of  his  symphonic 
ode  "The  Sea" — a  movement  of  purely  de- 
scriptive and  imitative  music — calls  for  a  con- 
cealed brass  band  consisting  of  3  trumpets,  7 
trombones,  and  a  bass  tuba,  together  with  i 
piccolo,  2  flutes,  2  oboes,  2  clarinets,  2  bassoons, 
4  horns,  2  tenor  tubas,  i  bass  tuba,  2  pairs  of 
kettle-drums,  i  pair  of  cymbals,  i  triangle,  i 
bass  drum,  i  gong,  i  set  of  bells,  2  harps,  and 
the  usual  strings. 

The  proportion  of  power  and  the  balance  of 
tone  in  the  orchestra  are  preserved  by  having 
more  stringed  than  wind  instruments.  It  re- 
quires many  violins  and  basses  to  balance  the 
wood  and  brass  in  a  forte  passage,  and,  further- 
more, the  strings  themselves  lack  solidity  if 
there  are  only  a  few.  As  an  example  of  a  well- 
balanced  orchestra,  we  may  take  the  Boston 
Symphony,  which  is  organized  as  follows :  16 
first  violins,  14  second,  10  violas,  10  violoncellos, 
8  double-basses,  3  flutes,  2  oboes,  i  English  horn, 
3  clarinets,  3  bassoons,  4  trumpets,  4  horns,  3 
trombones,  2  tenor  tubas,  2  bass  tubas,  i  contra- 
bass tuba,  2  pairs  of  tympani,  i  bass-drum,  i 
pair  of  cymbals,  i  harp.  The  additional  wind- 
instruments  are,  of  course,  used  only  in  com- 

213 


From  Haydn  to  Wagner 


positions  which  call  for  them.  An  excellent 
example  of  a  great  festival  orchestra  was  that 
conducted  by  Theodore  Thomas  at  the  New 
York  Music  Festival  of  1882.  It  consisted  of 
50  first  violins,  50  second  violins,  36  violas,  36 
violoncellos,  40  double-basses,  6  harps,  6  flutes, 
2  piccolos,  7  oboes,  Z.English  horns,  6  clarinets, 

2  bass  clarinets,  6  bassoons,  2  contra-bassoons, 
9  horns,  2  Sax  horns,  1 1  cornets,  3  trumpets,  i 
bass  trumpet,  9  trombones,  3  tubas,  4  pairs  of 
kettle-drums,  2  bass  drums,  2  pairs  of  cymbals, 

3  small  drums,  and  2  triangles. 


213 


PART  V 
How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 


XVI 

From  Bach  to  Haydn 

A  BOOK  on  the  orchestra  might  be  regarded 
as  complete  without  this  chapter,  yet  it 
seems  to  the  author  that  a  few  suggestions  as  to 
the  nature  and  aims  of  the  different  kinds  of 
orchestral  music  heard  at  concerts  may  not  be 
unwelcome  to  the  reader.  It  is  always  desirable 
to  know  what  to  listen  for  in  a  musical  compo- 
sition, because  many  disappointments  are  thus 
avoided.  A  person  who  hopes  to  hear  in  a 
Bach  fugue  the  gorgeous  masses  of  tone  which 
are  characteristic  of  a  contemporaneous  orches- 
tral piece,  will  certainly  declare  Bach  to  be  a 
dry  and  uninteresting  composer.  Equally  he 
who  hopes  to  discover  in  Rimsky-Korsakow's 
"  Scheherezade  "  suite  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  the  Eighth  Symphony,  will  assert  that 
the  talented  Russian  is  no  composer  at  all. 

The  compositions  of  Johann  Sebastian  Bach 
(1685-1750)  lie  a  little  to  one  side  of  the  direct 
path  of  orchestral  development,  and  many  of 
them  were  contemporaneous  with  works  which 

:2I7 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

are  in  form  and  treatment  of  a  more  modern 
style.  Nevertheless,  Bach's  works  mark  the 
epoch  from  which  any  review  of  orchestral 
music  must  start.  During  the  Middle  Ages  the 
artistic  composers  of  music  were  almost  wholly 
absorbed  in  writing  for  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  Their  compositions  were  for  voices 
without  accompaniment,  and  consisted  of  great 
Gothic  structures  of  polyphonic  music.  In  this 
kind  of  music  every  voice  was  at  the  same  in- 
stant engaged  in  singing  different  parts  of  the 
same  melody,  the  melody  being  so  cunningly 
made  that  these  different  phrases,  when  heard 
together,  would  produce  harmony.  It  was  late 
in  the  sixteenth  century  that  instrumental  music 
began  to  develop  independently,  and  the  com- 
posers employed  for  it  the  same  style  as  they 
had  used  in  their  church  masses.  Early  instru- 
mental music  is  polyphonic,  and  the  full  and 
final  development  of  this  style  of  composition 
is  found  in  the  fugues  and  concerti  grossi  of 
Bach.  Handel  also  wrote  concerti  grossi,  and 
they,  too,  partake  of  the  polyphonic  character. 
The  essential  trait  of  this  kind  of  music  is 
the  interweaving  of  the  various  melodic  voice- 
parts  and  the  effects  obtained  by  their  working 
against  one  another.  Polyphonic  writing  is 
the  most  profound  and  serious  style  of  compo- 
sition, and  it  is  also  that  which  best  endures 

213 


From  Bach  to  Haydn 


the  test  of  time.  Modern  composers  have  fully 
realized  that  fact  and  have  introduced  a  new 
polyphony  into  their  works.  It  is  what  is  called 
free  counterpoint,  by  which  is  meant  the  work- 
ing together  of  several  voices  which  do  not 
sing  different  parts  of  the  same  melody  at  the 
same  time,  but  only  at  points  suitable  to  the 
composer's  purpose,  while  at  other  points  new 
melodic  ideas  may  be  introduced.  But  in  the 
early  polyphonic  music  the  listener  will  hear 
chiefly  the  interweaving  of  voice-parts  of  the 
same  melody,  and  he  will  miss  all  the  beauty 
and  intellectual  finish  of  these  works  if  he  seeks 
simply  for  the  sensuous  sweetness  of  instru- 
mental tints.  Usually  the  orchestral  color  is  ' 
distinguished  by  sobriety,  and  the  profoundly 
thoughtful  nature  of  contrapuntal  music  causes 
a  general  austerity  of  instrumental  diction.  I 
have  already  mentioned  the  historical  fact  that 
orchestral  tone-coloring  began  with  Mozart. 
But  this  was  necessarily  the  case,  for  the  early 
contrapuntal  writers  were  too  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  development  of  form  to  study  the  re- 
sources of  color.  '  The  operatic  writers  were  the 
first  to  seek  for  color-effects,  just  as  they  were 
the  first  to  use  abrupt  changes  of  rhythm  and 
startling  dissonances  in  their  search  after  dra- 
matic expression. 

The  working  out  of  formal  perfection  filled 
219 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

the  early  classic  as  well  as  the  late  polyphonic 
period,  but  the  form  was  different.  With  the 
birth  of  opera  there  entered  into  modern  music 
a  new  power,  that  of  the  vocal  solo  with  subor- 
dinate accompaniment;  and  composers  at  once 
sought  for  a  new  form  in  which  they  could  cast 
their  melodic  ideas  so  that  they  would  be  in- 
teresting and  artistic  when  sung  by  one  voice 
instead  of  several.  The  development  of  these 
monophonic  forms  occupied  the  early  classical 
composers.  They  obtained  their  most  preg- 
nant suggestion  from  the  operatic  aria  da  capo. 
In  this  kind  of  song  there  are  three  sections,  the 
first  and  third  being  the  same  melody,  and  the 
middle  one  being  different  and  contrasting. 
This  form  suggested  to  instrumental  composers 
the  cycle,  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  most 
instrumental  compositions  of  the  classic  period. 
The  classic  overture,  for  example,  consisted  of 
three  movements  (without  breaks),  slow,  fast, 
and  slow,  or  fast,  slow,  and  fast.  And  it  was 
customary  to  repeat  in  the  last  one  the  princi- 
pal melodic  idea  of  the  first.  The  first  move- 
ment of  a  symphony  or  a  piano  sonata  (for  a 
symphony  is  a  sonata  for  orchestra)  is  built  on 
a  similar  plan.  Certain  melodic  ideas,  called 
themes  or  subjects,  are  set  forth  in  the  first  sec- 
tion. Then  follows  a  middle  section  called  the 
free  fantasia  or  "  working-out,"  and  in  this  the 

220 


From  Bach  to  Haydn 


melodic  subject-matter  is  literally  worked  out. 
It  is  submitted  to  various  processes  of  musical 
development,  such  as  changes  of  harmony, 
changes  of  rhythm,  different  instrumental  treat- 
ments, polyphonic  expression,  etc.,  till  there  is 
nothing  more  to  say,  and  then  the  third  section 
restates  the  original  matter  in  its  first  shape 
and  adds  a  coda  (tail-piece),  by  which  the  move- 
ment is  brought  to  a  conclusion.  The  devel- 
opment of  this  form  was  aided  by  the  instru- 
mental suite,  a  form  which  consisted  of  series  of 
dances  of  different  kinds.  These  suites  helped 
the  symphonic  composers  to  perceive  the  value 
of  alternating  different  sorts  of  movements,  so 
that  symphonies  began  with  an  allegro,  con- 
structed on  the  cyclical  pattern  just  described, 
and  continued  with  an  adagio,  a  minuet,  and  a 
finale. 

The  development  of  this  form  occupied  the 
attention  of  instrumental  composers  from,  say 
the  publication  of  Corelli's  first  sonata  (so- 
called),  in  1685,  till  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century.  By  that  time  it  was  fully  de- 
veloped, and  was  ready  for  such  modifications 
as  might  be  suggested  by  the  entrance  of  a 
new  purpose  into  the  field  of  instrumental  com- 
position. The  symphonies  of  Haydn  and  Mo- 
zart and  the  first  two  of  Beethoven  belong  to 
this  period  of  the  development  of  the  symphon- 

221 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

ic  form,  which  is  also  known  as  the  Classic 
Period. 

The  lover  of  music  who  desires  to  listen  with 
intelligence  and  to  bring  the  faculty  of  judg- 
ment to  the  guidance  of  his  fancy,  should  study 
the  history  of  music,  because  from  an  acquaint- 
ance with  that  subject  he  will  acquire  a  correct 
point  of  view.  It  is  impossible  in  the  limits  of 
two  short  chapters  in  a  volume  of  this  size  to 
do  more  than  indicate  in  the  most  general  man- 
ner the  salient  points  in  the  development  of  or- 
chestral music.  Therefore,  I  must  content  my- 
self with  inviting  the  reader  to  note  that  these 
two  early  periods  of  musical  history,  the  Poly- 
phonic and  the  Classic,  were  occupied  chiefly 
with  the  labors  of  composers  engaged  in  the 
establishment  of  methods.  Two  general  classes 
of  forms,  the  polyphonic  and  the  monophonic, 
were  developed,  and  the  manner  of  elaborat- 
ing musical  ideas  and  of  instrumental  technic 
suitable  to  each  was  fairly  established.  But 
it  cannot  be  said  that  the  early  classic  com- 
posers advanced  beyond  the  exclusively  musi- 
x  cal  limits  of  their  art.  The  music-lover  will 
look  in  vain  for  the  note  of  profound  human 
emotion  in  the  symphonies  of  Haydn  and  Mo- 
zart. 

The  dramatic  power  of  unsupported  instru- 
mental music  had  not  yet  been  felt  by  compos- 


From  Bach  to  Haydn 


ers,  because  they  were  engaged,  not  in  studying 
the  capacity  of  their  art  for  the  symbolism  of 
ideas  extraneous  to  itself,  but  in  exploring  its 
purely  aesthetic  resources.  IVIusic  was  still  to 
them  an  end,  not  a  means.  'They  sought  only 
for  beauty,  and  they  aimed  at  producing  it 
by  the  employment  of  the  technical  details  of 
forms  and  idioms  peculiar  to  their  own  art. 
While  the  polyphonic  writers  had  utilized  the 
interweaving  of  different  parts  of  the  same  mel- 
ody, the  classic  composers  exercised  their  taste, 
ingenuity,  and  feeling  in  developing  melodic 
subjects  in  a  vocal  solo  style,  with  a  support  of 
harmonies  built  on  chords,  of  which  the  melo- 
dy was  an  inseparable  part.  Their  orchestral 
method  differed  from  that  of  the  polyphonic 
school  because  their  manner  of  composing  com- 
pelled a  change.  Bach's  way  of  using  every 
instrument  as  a  solo  voice  was  no  longer  avail- 
able. The  melodic  subjects  of  a  symphony 
must  always  predominate.  Now  they  flow 
to  us  from  the  strings,  now  from  the  wood, 
again  from  the  brass ;  but  always  with  chord 
harmonies.  Hence,  we  find  the  classic  com- 
posers using  wind-instruments  in  pairs  and 
making  different  combinations  of  the  various 
groups  of  instruments,  so  that  simultaneously 
with  the  process  of  thematic  development  and 
working-out  (which  is  the  drawing  of  the 

223 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

phonic  tone-picture),  there  is  a  constant  change 
of  the  color-scheme,  and  thus  the  melodic  and 
harmonic  details  are  heightened  by  a  judicious 
use  of  the  tonal  qualities  of  the  voices  which 
sing  them  to  us.  The  skill  of  composers  in 
using  these  tonal  qualities  and  the  technical  ex- 
pertness  of  orchestral  players  grew  so  fast  that 
in  the  course  of  time,  as  we  shall  see,  they  came 
to  a  position  of  undue  prominence  in  orchestral 
music ;  but  this  state  of  affairs  was  largely  hast- 
ened by  the  employment  of  vivid  color-effects 
by  the  romanticists  in  their  endeavors  to  obtain 
dramatic  utterance  from  the  orchestra. 

The  music-lover  who  listens  to  orchestral 
music  of  the  classic  period  must  not  expect 
anything  but  a  clear  and  perspicuous  presenta- 
tion of  music  for  its  own  sake.  Sunny  trans- 
parency is  the  chief  characteristic  of  the  in- 
strumentation of  Haydn  and  Mozart,  while  the 
technical  construction  of  their  works  makes  it 
incumbent  upon  the  listener  to  follow  the 
purely  musical  working-out  of  the  subjects  an- 
nounced.  The  instrumental  color-scheme  is 
neither  wide  nor  brilliant,  but  it  is  as  admi- 
rably adapted  to  the  subject-matter  as  the  sub- 
dued greens  of  Corot  are  to  his  peaceful  bu- 
colic scenes.  To  appreciate  thoroughly  the 
works  of  Haydn  and  Mozart  a  music-lover 
should  have  the  fundamental  principles  of 
224 


From  Bach  to  Haydn 


musical  form  at  his  fingers'  ends,  and  he  should 
know  the  voices  of  the  instruments.  The  rest 
is  child's  play.  The  knowledge  of  musical 
form  is  indispensable  to  the  right  enjoyment  of 
all  music,  but  it  is  peculiarly  necessary  in  these 
classic  works,  in  which  pure  beauty  of  form 
was  the  ultimate  object. 


XVII 

From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss 

OF  the  early  classic  writers  only  Haydn  and 
Mozart  have  survived  the  test  of  time, 
and  neither  of  them  figures  frequently  in  con- 
temporaneous concert  programmes.  This  is  a 
pity,  for  their  music  would  often  serve  as  a  cor- 
rective to  a  taste  which  is  inclined  to  clamor 
ceaselessly  for  "ginger  hot  i'  the  mouth."  But 
it  is  beyond  dispute  that  the  romantic  com- 
posers awaken  more  sympathetic  chords  in 
the  modern  bosom.  Beethoven  is  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  classic  and  romantic 
schools. 

His  First  and  Second  Symphonies  belong  to 
the  former ;  the  rest  to  the  latter.  The  mod- 
ern romantic  school  of  music  sprang  from 
Beethoven's  "Eroica"  symphony,  his  opera  "Fi- 
delio,"  Schubert's  marvellous  songs,  and  -We- 
ber's "  Der  Freischiitz."  In  so  far  as  purely 
orchestral  music  is  concerned,  however,  Beet- 
hoven was  the  master  of  them  all.  It  was  he 
who  first  showed  musicians  how  to  project 
226 


From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss 

emotion  through  the  orchestral  melos.  If 
Mendelssohn's  fanciful  little  piano  pieces  are 
songs  without  words,  then  Beethoven's  Third, 
Fifth,  Sixth  and  Seventh  symphonies  are 
dramas  without  text. 

In  form  and  technical  method  these  works 
follow  the  general  plan  of  the  classic  sym- 
phonies of  Haydn  and  Mozart.  Indeed,  the  C 
minor  symphony  of  Beethoven  is  the  finest  and 
most  fully  developed  specimen  of  that  form. 
But  Beethoven  made  certain  changes  which 
came  from  the  nature  of  his  search  after  emo- 
tional expression.  He  modulated  into  foreign 
keys  with  greater  freedom  than  his  predeces- 
sors, and  he  made  wider  gaps  between  the  keys 
of  his  successive  movements.  A  complex  and 
changeful  harmonic  basis  has  always  been  as- 
sociated with  emotional  expression  in  music. 
Simple  harmonies  are  restful,  peaceful,  and 
suggestive  of  serenity  of  the  soul ;  frequent 
modulations  and  unfinished  cadences  express 
uneasiness  of  mind  —  largely  because  they 
create  it.  v 

In  addition  to  this  advance,  Beethoven  also 
found  it  possible  to  knit  the  melodic  structure 
of  his  works  much  more  firmly.  He  intro- 
duced his  second  subjects,  for  instance,  by 
means  of  transitional  passages  made  out  of  some 
of  the  materials  of  his  first  subjects.  His  work- 

227 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

ing-out  processes  were  infinitely  broader  and 
grander  than  those  of  his  predecessors,  and  they 
invariably  led  to  strenuous  and  stimulating 
climaxes,  not  found  in  the  earlier  symphonies. 
Beethoven  substituted  for  the  old  minuet  move- 
ment the  scherzo,  which  resembles  the  minuet 
in  form,  but  differs  wholly  from  it  in  spirit. 
The  word  scherzo  means  "jest,"  and  the  move- 
ment was  at  first  intended  to  be  humorous  or 
playful ;  but  Beethoven  sometimes  gave  it  the 
grim  mystery  of  tragic  suspense,  as  in  the  Fifth 
Symphony. 

Beethoven's  manner  of  instrumentation  has 
already  been  discussed  to  some  extent.  It  is 
necessary  only  to  add  that  it  shows  a  pro- 
founder  insight  into  the  special  character  of 
each  instrument  than  that  of  any  writer  who 
preceded  him.  This  was  the  result  of  the  com- 
poser's search  after  influential  emotional  ex- 
pression, and  of  his  complete  dependence  for 
it  upon  his  instruments.  The  advances  of 
Beethoven  in  the  treatment  of  orchestral  forms 
led  the  romantic  composers  to  perceive  that 
they  could  make  still  larger  changes  without 
infringing  the  fundamental  laws  upon  which 
the  artistic  development  of  musical  ideas  pro- 
ceeded. 

Robert  Schumann's  symphonies  are  notable 
examples  of  the  methods  adopted  by  the  ro- 
228 


From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss 

mantic  writers.  His  symphony  in  D  minor 
is  intended  to  be  played  without  any  pauses 
between  the  consecutive  movements,  and  me- 
lodic material  introduced  in  one  movement 
is  employed  in  the  development  of  another. 
Thus  the  principal  theme  of  the  first  move- 
ment recurs  in  a  significantly  modified  form 
in  the  last,  and  an  idea  heard  in  the  intro- 
duction is  repeated  with  much  meaning  in  the 
scherzo. 

These  innovations  were  the  direct  result  of 
attempts  to  give  to  music  a  more  definite  emo- 
tional force,  and  they  were  brought  about  by 
Beethoven's  convincing  demonstration  of  the 
dramatic  expressiveness  of  orchestral  music. 
The  highly  wrought  overtures  of  Weber,  as 
well  as  those  of  Beethoven,  had  an  additional 
value  in  showing  later  composers  how  to  util- 
ize the  suggestive  power  of  a  title  in  combi- 
nation with  characteristic  methods  of  instru- 
mental utterance.  Haydn,  in  his  "  Creation," 
had  invented  some  of  the  now  conventional 
figures  of  orchestral  utterance,  such  as  the 
rolling  of  waves  and  the  raging  of  storms. 
Beethoven's  storm  in  the  "  Pastoral "  symphony 
went  farther,  and,  mild  as  it  sounds  now,  was 
a  remarkable  achievement  in  its  day.  Spohr 
began  to  write  symphonies  with  descriptive 
titles  such  as  the  "  Leonore "  (founded  on  a 
229 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

poem  by  Burger)  and  "  The  Power  of  Sound." 
Mendelssohn  wrote  descriptive  overtures  such 
as  "  Fingal's  Cave,"  and  in  his  "  Midsummer 
Night's  Dream  "  music  suggested  how  far  the 
purely  illustrative  powers  of  orchestral  song 
might  go. 

It  required  very  little  experimenting  in  this 
kind  of  composition  to  show  musicians  that 
the  prescribed  forms  of  the  classic  symphony 
and  overture  were  unsuited  to  it.  It  was  quite 
impossible  to  embody  in  music,  developed 
strictly  on  lines  designed  for  the  exploitation 
of  pure  musical  beauty,  a  series  of  emotions 
which  moved  according  to  wholly  different 
laws.  The  famous  pianist,  Franz  Liszt,  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  the  new  school,  in- 
vented the  symphonic  poem,  a  composition 
symphonic  in  style,  but  smaller  in  extent  and 
without  any  pause  between  the  movements. 
These  are  welded  together  by  connecting  mat- 
ter which  causes  the  passage  from  one  to  the 
other  to  be  barely  perceptible.  The  movements 
themselves  are  distributed  wholly  according  to 
the  sequence  of  the  principal  emotional  moods 
of  the  story  which  is  to  be  illustrated.  The 
fundamental  laws  of  musical  form  are,  of  course, 
observed ;  but  conventional  formulae  are  not 
followed. 

Liszt  employed  all  the  symphonic  devices 
230 


From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss 

of  thematic  development  in  his  symphonic 
poems,  and  his  immediate  imitators  followed 
his  example.  But  many  later  composers  have 
abandoned  almost  the  whole  symphonic  scheme, 
so  that  the  works  of  the  first  masters  of  the 
romantic  school  belong  to  a  period  of  transi- 
tion between  the  late  classicists  and  the  ultra- 
romanticists  of  our  time. 

The  reader  must  not  understand  me  as  in- 
tending to  say  that  the  form  of  the  classic  sym- 
phony has  been  universally  abandoned.  On  the 
contrary,  one  of  the  most  agreeable  of  living 
composers,  Antonin  Dvordk,  clings  to  it,  and 
there  are  many  others  who  still  find  that  they 
can  say  all  they  wish  to  say  through  the  me- 
dium used  by  Beethoven.  Brahms  was  the 
finest  recent  exponent  of  the  classic  sym- 
phony. But  there  is  undoubtedly  a  growing 
tendency  among  composers  to  make  their  or- 
chestral works  vast  color-pictures.  The  themes 
in  these  works  are  subjected  to  little  or  no  real 
musical  development,  but  are  brought  forward 
again  and  again  in  new  instrumental  garbs,  and 
instead  of  reaching  climaxes  by  devices  of  me- 
lodic evolution,  the  composers  aim  at  produc- 
ing dramatic  effects  by  imposing  or  vivid  in- 
strumental coloring. 

At  the  same  time  these  composers  employ  a 
most  complex  polyphony,  for  their  scores  teem 

231 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

with  melodic  utterance  in  all  the  principal 
voices.  Richard  Strauss,  of  Munich,  is  the 
leading  writer  of  this  school  of  orchestral  col- 
orists.  His  works  show  supreme  mastery  of 
the  technics  of  orchestration,  the  most  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  special  characteristics  of 
the  various  instruments,  and  a  really  remark- 
able knowledge  of  the  results  to  be  gained  by 
the  mixture  of  tone-tints.  It  is  the  opinion  of 
the  present  writer  that  Strauss  seeks  to  express 
in  music  things  which  cannot,  and  some  which 
ought  not,  to  be  so  expressed ;  but  that  is  a 
matter  which  need  not  be  discussed  here.  It 
is  undeniable  that  in  form  and  treatment  this 
composer's  works  are  in  the  direct  line  of  the 
general  tendency  of  orchestral  music  in  our 
day,  and  it  is  equally  undeniable  that  his 
mastery  of  the  technics  of  the  present  style  of 
writing  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  com- 
poser. 

I  have  endeavored  in  this  brief  survey  of 
orchestral  music  to  show  the  reader  how  it  be- 
gan with  the  most  rigid  and  logical  forms,  in 
which  the  laws  of  thematic  evolution  were  ap- 
plied with  the  intent  to  attain  purely  musical 
beauty  ;  and  how,  as  the  technics  of  instrumen- 
tation became  better  understood,  the  employ- 
ment of  instrumental  coloring  led  composers 
away  from  rigorous  thematic  development 

232 


From  Beethoven  to  Richard  Strauss 

toward  a  species  of  composition  in  which  dra- 
matic effects  were  obtained  by  a  more  free 
method  of  construction  and  a  larger  use  of  color- 
effects. 

From  this  we  appear  at  present  to  be  pass- 
ing into  a  period  in  which  these  color-effects 
alone  are  to  be  called  upon  as  the  means  of  or- 
chestral expression. 

It  is  quite  impossible  for  us  who  are  contem- 
poraneous with  this  new  school  to  decide  as  to 
its  value.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  recognize  its 
tendencies  and  watch  their  evolution.  What  I 
have  attempted  to  do  in  this  chapter  is  to  point 
out  briefly  to  the  reader  the  salient  traits  of  the 
orchestral  music  of  the  different  periods,  to  the 
end  that  in  listening  he  might  endeavor  to  find 
his  enjoyment  where  the  composer  intended  that 
he  should  find  it,  and  not  be  disappointed  from 
an  unwise  attempt  to  find  it  somewhere  else. 
The  observant  music-lover  will  find,  I  think,  that 
the  development  of  orchestration  has  been  per- 
fectly normal,  and  that  the  instrumentation  of 
each  period  is  perfectly  fitted  to  its  music.  A 
symphony  of  Mozart  orchestrated  in  the  Rich- 
ard Strauss  style  would  be  a  tinted  Venus;  while 
a  tone  poem  of  Strauss  scored  a  la  Mozart 
would  be  like  one  of  Cropsey's  autumn  land- 
scapes reduced  to  the  dead  level  of  a  pen-and- 
ink  drawing.  It  is  largely  because  of  this  or- 
233 


How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

ganic  union  between  music  and  its  orchestral 
garb  that  the  amateur  ought  to  strive  to  under- 
stand the  nature  and  purpose  of  orchestration. 
The  addition  to  his  enjoyment  of  all  orchestral 
music  will  be  far  more  than  sufficient  to  pay 
for  the  labor  of  the  study. 


INDEX 


ABBREVIATIONS  in  scores,  47 
Aria  da  capo,  suggestion  to  or- 
chestral composers,  220 

BACH'S  orchestra,  195 

Balance  of  tone,  65  ;  how  ob- 
tained, 115 

Bass  clarinet,  compass  and  char- 
acter, 28  ;  introduction  of,  209 

Bass  drum,  HI 

Bassoon,  compass  and  character, 
24 

Baton,  use  of,  148  et  seq. ;  need 
of,  IS4 

"  Battery,"  108  et  seq. 

Beethoven's  symphonies,  226  et 
seq. 

Bells,  HI 

Berlioz,  67,  68 ;  his  orchestra, 
208 

Boston  Symphony  Orchestra,  50, 

212 

Bowing,  9  ;  marks  for,  138 
Brass,  4 ;  methods  of  using,  97 
et  seq.  ;  Bach's  and  Handel's 
plans,  98 ;  Haydn's,  99  ;  Mo- 
zart's, zoo ;  employed  unsup- 
ported, 105 ;  Wagner  learns 
from  Gluck  and  Mozart,  107 


CARILLON,  112 

Castanets,  HI 

Clarinet,  compass  and  character, 

26 ;  how  to  read  its  music,  52 ; 

methods  of  using,  86  et  seq. 
Classic  music,  character  of,  222 
Classicists,  modern,  231 
Clefs,  55  et  seq. 
Colorists,  231 
Conductor,  development  of,  147 

et    seq.  ;     interpreting,     156 ; 

Wagner's    influence  on,    161 ; 

functions  of,   164 ;    in    detail, 

167 ;    choice    of   tempo,   169 ; 

work  besides  choice  of  tempo, 

174 

Conductors,  famous,  158  et  seq. 

Contra-bass  clarinet,  96 

Contra-bassoon,  95 

Contrast,  65  ;   how  obtained,  119 

Cornet,  23 

Cyclic  forms,  220 

Cymbals,  HI 

DIRECTIONS,  composers',  to  be 
obeyed,  139 

Double  bass,  compass  and  char- 
acter, 17 

Drum,  bass,  HI  ;  snare,  HI 


235 


Index 


ENGLISH  HORN,  compass  and 
character,  23 

FLEXIBILITY  in  orchestral  play- 
ing, 134 

Flute,  compass  and  character, 
19 ;  uses  of,  81  et  seq. ;  intro- 
duction of,  190 

Forms,  development  of  musical, 
220 ;  Beethoven's  innovations, 
227 ;  Schumann's,  228 

GLISSANDO,  41 
Gong,  in 

Gossec,  developer  of  orchestral 
technics,  158 

HABENBCK,  interpreting  con- 
ductor, 160 

Handel's  orchestra,  196 

Harmonics,  7,  8 

Harmony,  dispersal  of,  64 

Harp,  39  ;  pedals,  40 ;  methods 
of  using,  39  et  seq. 

Harpsichord,  used  in  conducting, 
149  et  seq. ;  method  of  use, 
150 ;  used  in  symphonic  con- 
ducting, 155 

Haydn's  orchestra,  200 

Horn,  compass  and  character, 
30 ;  how  to  read  its  music,  54 ; 
methods  of  using,  97  et  seq. ; 
stopped  tones,  100;  valves, 
100;  Rossini's  horn  style,  100: 
in  "Eroica"  symphony,  101  • 
four  horns,  how  used,  101, 

102 

Horn,  English,  23 ;  introduction 
into  orchestra,  208 


INSTRUMENTATION,  models,  68 
Instruments,   list  of,   in  orches- 
tra,  4 ;    names    in    four    lan- 
guages, 46 

LKADER  of  orchestra,  154 
Legno,  col,  10 
Legrenzi's  orchestra,  192 
Liszt,    inventor    of    symphonic 

poem,  230 
Lully's  orchestra,  193 

MENDELSSOHN,  model  for  string 

writing,  76 
Metronome,  172 
Meyerbeer,  39,  40,  41 
Middle  voices,  135 
Monteverde,    Claudio,    founder 

of  modern  orchestra,  186 
Mozart,  tone-coloring,  and  string 

plan,  75,  76;  his  orchestra,  204 
Music,  orchestral,   development 

of,  217  et  seq.  ;  polyphonic,  218 ; 

classic,  220 ;  character  of,  222 

et  seq. ;    what    to    expect    in 

classic,  224 ;  Beethoven's,  226 

et  seq, ;  romantic,  228 

NICODB,  divided  strings  in  "  Das 
Meer,"  77 

OBOE,  compass  and  character, 
20 ;  uses  of,  81  et  seq. 

Ophicleide,  210 

Orchestra,  denned,  3;  Beet- 
hoven's, 4,  206 ;  instruments  in, 
4  ;  how  used,  61 ;  compass,  61 ; 
dynamic  range,  62 ;  constitu- 
tion of,  142;  development  of, 


236 


Index 


181  et  seq. ;   in  Middle  Ages, 

183;    Peri's  and    Cavaliere's, 

185,  186  ;    Monteverde's,  186  ; 

Scarlatti's,   190  ;  Lully's,   192  ; 

Legrenzi's,  192 ;   Bach's,  195  ; 

Handel's,  196  ;  in  early  part  of 

eighteenth  century,    193,    198 ; 

Gossec's,  200  ;   Haydn's,  200  ; 

Dresden  court  orchestra,  203  ; 

Mozart's,  204 ;  Berlioz's,  208  ; 

Wagner's,    210,    211 ;    Boston 

Symphony's     number,      212  ; 

festival,  213 
Orchestral    music,  development 

of,  217  et  seq. 
Orchestras,  famous,  140  et  seq.  ; 

302 

Orchestration,  general  principles 
of,  61 ;  requirements  of,  63 ; 
models  in,  67,  68  ;  Bach's  poly- 
phonic, 82 ;  qualities  of  good, 
113  et  seq.  ;  pianists'  mistakes, 
115 ;  Bach's,  120 ;  effect  of 
clarinet  in,  120;  Handel's,  121 ; 
romantic,  122 ;  innovations  of 
Monteverde,  188 ;  Corelli's 
contributions  to,  193 

Overture,  classic  form,  200 

PBKCUSSIVE  instruments,  parts 
for,  ii2 

Performance,  qualities  of  orches- 
tral, 124  et  seq.  ;  requisites  of, 

"5 
Phrasing,  137 

Piccolo,  95 
Precision,  131,  133 

QUALITY  of  tone,  125 


Quartette,  string,  establishment 
of,  189,  190 

ROMANTIC  music,  228  et  seq, 

SALTATO,  10 

Score,  described,  43  et  seq.  ;  ab- 
breviations in,  47 

Seating  plan  of  orchestra,  49,  50, 
203 

Shading  in  orchestral  playing, 
134  et  seq. 

Solidity,  64,  114;  how  obtained, 
115  ;  in  performance,  126 

Sonata,  development  of,  220 

Sordines,  10 

Stamitz,  developer  of  orchestral 
technics,  158 

Strauss,  R.,  leader  of  orchestral 
colorists,  232 

Strings,  5  ;  methods  of  using,  66 
et  seq.  ;  test  of  methods,  72  ; 
Beethoven's  plan,  72,  76 ;  in- 
novations in  use  of,  by  roman- 
ticists, 72 ;  effects  of  different 
registers,  73 ;  Haydn's  plan,  75 ; 
Mozart's  plan,  76 ;  Mendels- 
sohn's plan,  76;  introduction 
of  various  effects,  80  ;  proper 
proportion  of,  127 

Symphonic  poem,  230 

Symphony,  form  and  develop- 
ment, 220  //  seq. 

TAMBOURINE,  m 

Tempo,  importance    of,  169   et 

seq. 
Tone,  balance  of,  65.  126;  how 

obtained,  115;  qualities  of,  in 


Index 


orchestral  performance,  125  et 

seq.  ;  necessity  of  fine,  130 
Transposing   instruments,  51  et 

seq. 

Tremolo,  9  ;  invention  of,  188 
Trombone,  kinds,  compass  and 

character,  34 ;  how  used,  102  ; 

introduction  in  symphony,  103 ; 

Berlioz's  use  of,  106  ;  Mozart's 

and  Gluck's  use  of,  107 
Trumpet,  compass  and  character, 

32  ;  how  to  read  its  music,  54  ; 

methods  of  using,  98  et  seq. 
Tuba,  kinds  and  character,  35  ; 

how  used,  103 ;  introduction  of, 

210 

Tympani,    compass    and    char- 
acter,   37  ;    how    used,     108  ; 

Beethoven's  innovations  in  use 

of,  109 

UNANIMITY,  131, 132, 133 


VARIETY,  65  ;  how  obtained,  119 

Viola,  compass  and  character  of, 
13  et  seq.  ;  how  used,  67  et  seq. 

Violin,  compass,  bowing,  etc.,  6 
et  seq.  ;  entrance  into  orches- 
tra, 187 

Violins,  first  and  second,  5  ;  sec- 
ond, II 

Violoncello,  compass  and  char- 
acter, 16  ;  how  used,  71 


WAGNBR'S  orchestra,  210 
Wood-wind,  enumerated,  4 :  in 
detail,  19  ;  methods  of  using, 
81  et  seq.  ;  Bach's  plan,  82 ; 
Handel's,  84 ;  Haydn's,  85  : 
Mozart's,  87  ;  Beethoven's,  88 : 
Brahms's,  89 ;  Beethoven's 
innovations,  90 ;  Wagner's,  91 

XYLOPHONE,  112 


238 


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